Scores of people feared dead in Indonesia’s tsunami disaster zone were found alive on Saturday as rescue workers began to reach remote island communities five days after the killer wave.
The discovery came as Indonesia struggled with disaster on two fronts following another powerful eruption of the archipelago’s most active volcano, which sparked chaos and spewed ash over a vast area of central Java.
On the tsunami-hit Mentawai island chain off the coast of Sumatra, rescue workers battling rough seas and monsoon rain found 135 people hiding on high ground, too scared of another wave to return to their shattered villages.
“We’re so grateful that we’ve found many of the missing people — we’d been working very hard to find them,” disaster management official Joskamatir said.
Officials had held out little hope of finding many of the missing after flights over the area earlier in the week revealed dozens of unclaimed bodies strewn across beaches and wedged in rubble.
Many of the dead were also believed to have been sucked out to sea as the killer wave receded.
The number of missing was almost halved from 298 to 163 following Saturday’s discovery, while the death count stood at 414, according to an official tally.
Rescue workers were reaching some of the isolated coastal villages crushed by the three-metre wall of water which was triggered on Monday by a 7,7-magnitude earthquake, but monsoon weather was slowing the relief effort.
“Before help came I survived by eating whatever we could find, such as taro,” said Theopilus (42) a farmer on the worst-hit island of South Pagai.
“We’re in dire need of more food, tents and blankets. I feel really cold at night as it rains all the time.”
There was more good news as several tsunami-relief volunteers were found safe after their boat sank off South Pagai island.
“They were about to help victims with the electricity in a hard-hit area. They were determined to go despite the bad weather,” disaster management official Surya said.
Merapi eruption
In central Java, 1 300km to the south-east, terrified residents fled in panic when Mount Merapi again erupted just after midnight, threatening a repeat of explosions on Tuesday that claimed at least 36 lives.
No one was killed in the latest eruption, but hospital staff reported that two people died in the chaotic rush to escape, incluidng a woman who was hit by a truck.
“I was sleeping on the veranda when loud booms like thunder woke me up,” said local resident Kris Budianto (51). He suffered a broken arm and facial wounds when he crashed his motorbike in the melee.
Volcanic ash rained down on the Central Java provincial capital of Yogyakarta 26km away from the crater, shutting the airport for over an hour.
Government volcanologist Subandrio said more eruptions were likely and warned about 50 000 people who have been evacuated from the danger zone not to tempt fate by going home too soon.
“We will even have to evaluate whether we need to widen the exclusion zone because we should not downplay the threat — Mount Merapi is extremely dangerous,” he said.
Many displaced people returned to the slopes of 2 914-metre Merapi, a sacred landmark in Javanese tradition whose name means “Mountain of Fire”, to tend to their livestock during the day.
On North Pagai, dazed and hungry survivors of Monday night’s tsunami were still roaming between devastated villages looking for food and lost loved ones.
A baby was born in a crowded medical clinic as a man died of his wounds just a few beds away.
Another ship carrying badly need relief supplies such as tents, medicine and food arrived at Sikakap on the protected side of North Pagai island, while helicopters dropped aid packages to cut-off villages.
Joskamatir said only five percent of the aid piling up at Sikakap had been delivered to those in need, citing bad weather and the “limited availability of transportation” such as boats and helicopters.
“There are three helicopters here already but we still need more speedboats. We need about 50 speedboats,” he said.
Australia and the United States have pledged aid worth a total of three million dollars while the European Commission released €1,5-million for victims of both disasters.
Indonesia straddles a region known as the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, with scores of active volcanoes and major tectonic fault lines. Almost 170 000 Indonesians were killed in the 2004 Asian tsunami.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited tsunami survivors on Thursday and said the “only long-term solution” was for people to move away from the most vulnerable coastal areas.
Mentawai fisherman Hari (24) agreed.
“I plan to leave my village. I don’t want to live here anymore. I’m traumatised,” he said. – AFP