Indonesia searches for 100 missing after quake, tsunami

Wed, 27 Oct 2010

Jakarta - Rescue workers were searching for more than 100 missing people in tsunami-ravaged villages on Indonesia's Mentawai islands Wednesday, as aftershocks continue to shake the area, officials said.

The National Disaster Management Agency put the death toll at 112, with most of the deaths in Pagai Utara and Pagai Selatan districts where 10 villages were swept away by waves as high as 3 meters caused by Monday's 7.2-magnitude quake.

The number of missing was estimated at 109 people Wednesday, said Agus, an official at the provincial disaster management agency who, like many Indonesians, goes only by one name.

The estimate was down from 500 declared missing late Tuesday, but Agus declined to explain the drop in number.

Additional rescue workers and volunteers, along with disaster aid, were being sent to Mentawai, which takes about six hours by boat, Agus said.

The Health Ministry said waves from the tsunami reached as far as 600 meters inland minutes after the quake, sweeping away and submerging dozens of homes.

On Pagai Utara island, up to 80 per cent of homes in Betumonga village were destroyed, leaving many missing and feared dead, said Mujoarto, head of the Health Ministry's crisis center.

Aftershocks measuring up to 5.5 on the Richter scale were recorded through Wednesday, the Meteorology, Geophysics and Climatology Agency said.

The quake-triggered tsunami and the eruption of the Merapi volcano on Java forced President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to cut short a visit to Vietnam, a cabinet minister said.

State secretary Sudi Silalahi said Yudhoyono was scheduled to fly directly to Mentawai from Hanoi to monitor the conditions there.

The Mentawai chain consists of 70 islands and islets with a population of about 68,000 people, 150 kilometers off the western coast of Sumatra.

Experts have for the past two years warned of a massive undersea earthquake and a tsunami similar to the one that devastated Indian Ocean nations in December 2004.

That tsunami killed more than 230,000 people, including about 170,000 in Indonesia's Aceh province on Sumatra.

A magnitude-7.6 earthquake hit Padang and neighboring districts on Java in September 2009, killing more than 1,100 people.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where continental plates meet, causing frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

In Indonesia's crowded central Java province, rescue workers resumed their search Wednesday for the dead and missing among the dust-covered villages after Mount Merapi erupted and killed at least 25 people, injuring dozens of others.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/350571,100-missing-quake-tsunami.html.