INDONESIA: Survivors return after tsunami destroys homes on Java coast

Rescuers picked through debris on Indonesia's Java island on Tuesday (July 18) in their search for survivors as victims returned to their collapsed homes a day after a deadly tsunami killed at least 105 people. Nearly 130 people are missing since huge waves triggered by an undersea earthquake crashed into the southern coast of Java on Monday, washing away buildings, wooden cottages and kiosks lining the shoreline facing the Indian Ocean, officials said. Many people returned to salvage their belongings such as boat engines and clothes from the debris of their homes after the tsunami that destroyed fishing boats and damaged cafes, motels and restaurants about 500 metres from the coast line. Pangandaran, the area that bore the brunt of Monday's tsunami, is a popular local tourist spot with many small hotels on the beach. It is close to a nature reserve. Tedy, a shophouse owner at the coast returned the his shop on Tuesday morning. Helped by his employees he cleaned up the damaged dry good shop. "I don't care about the shop, as long as my family is safe. I saw with my own eyes when the wave came and rose. I took all my family out of the house. I cannot describe the full horror of that, said Tedy who took his family to the mosque four kilometres from the coast line. Anxious survivors lifted sheets covering dozens of bodies lining a hospital floor as they searched for relatives missing after the killer waves battered their homes, leaving the area strewn with bamboo poles, fallen trees and collapsed straw huts. Dozens of people fled in the dark on motorcycles and cars with horns blaring and headlights flashing early on Tuesday as rumours swirled of another tsunami, but government officials assured them there was no reason to panic. The U.S.-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the quake had a magnitude of 7.2, while the U.S. Geological Survey put it at 7.7. Indonesia's state meteorology and geophysics agency said the quake's strength was 6.8 on the Richter Scale. Indonesia's 17,000 islands sprawl along a belt of intense volcanic and seismic activity, part of what is called the "Pacific Ring of Fire". The December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was triggered by a massive earthquake. Nearly 170,000 people were killed or reported missing in Indonesia's Aceh province. Tens of thousands died elsewhere, the majority in Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. Earthquakes are frequent in Indonesia. In May, an earthquake near the central Java city of Yogyakarta killed more than 5,700 people.

ITN Source | July 18, 2006

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