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Indonesia rescuers scramble to reach isolated tsunami-struck towns
By Kiki Siregar, Harry PEARL
Carita, Indonesia (AFP) Dec 26, 2018

Photos and DNA tests as Indonesians search for lost relatives
Carita, Indonesia (AFP) Dec 26, 2018 - Grief-stricken Indonesians queued with photos or waited on DNA tests Wednesday, to find out if their missing loved ones were among bodies being held in a hospital morgue after a devastating tsunami tore families apart.

"I'm scared," said Tubagus Cecep, 63, as he waited nervously at a hospital in devastated Carita for test results on a body he fears could be that of his son.

"But if I keep my faith in God maybe he could have been swept away somewhere and is still alive."

His son, a university student due to graduate in five months, hasn't been seen since since the day of the disaster, when he was on a day trip to an island off the coast of Java.

Four of his friends are also missing.

"They found a body, a pile of bags and my son's shoes," the father of 10 told AFP.

"I'm still waiting for the body to be identified. We don't know yet if it was him."

Others queued up showing photos of their loved ones on mobile phones, with officials carrying out the grisly task of checking them against bodies in the morgue.

"We've been asking them about when was the last time they saw their relative, what they were wearing, if they have any identifying marks on their body," said Nariyana, head of the local police forensics and medical services unit, who goes by one name.

The task has been made more difficult by multiple relatives making duplicate reports of missing loved ones, Nariyana said.

Also waiting was Nur Masa, who was at a Java beach with his older brother on Saturday evening when the powerful waves struck.

His brother -- who was fixing a fishing net into the sea when the wave crashed in -- has not been seen since.

"I still hope he can be found," the 33-year-old Masa quietly told AFP

"But it's been four days and four nights and he still hasn't been located."

An eruption at the Anak Krakatoa volcano, which sits in the middle of the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra islands, caused a section of the crater to collapse and slide into the ocean, triggering the killer tsunami, officials have said.

The disaster agency slightly raised the death toll Wednesday to 430, with 1,495 people injured and another 159 missing.

Indonesian search and rescue teams Wednesday plucked stranded residents from remote islands and pushed into isolated communities desperate for aid in the aftermath of a volcano-triggered tsunami that killed over 400.

But torrential rains hampered the effort and heaped more misery on the region, as officials warned another killer wave could hit the stricken area.

The disaster agency cautioned residents to stay clear of the coast, as fresh activity at the Anak Krakatoa volcano, which sits in the middle of the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra islands, threatened to spark another tsunami.

The agency also said that wind was blowing "ash and sand" from Anak Krakatoa to the nearby towns of Cilegon and Serang on Java, and advised residents to wear masks and glasses if they had to venture outdoors.

A section of the crater -- which emerged at the site of the legendary Krakatoa volcano, whose massive 1883 eruption killed at least 36,000 people -- collapsed after an eruption and slid into the ocean, triggering Saturday night's killer wave.

It struck without warning, washing over popular beaches and inundating tourist hotels and coastal communities, leaving a trail of death and destruction in its wake.

The disaster agency slightly raised the death toll Wednesday to 430, with 1,495 people injured and another 159 missing.

Nearly 22,000 people have been evacuated and are living in shelters.

"There's a chance the number of fatalities will rise," agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told a press briefing.

Medical workers have warned that clean water and medicine supplies were running low -- stoking fears of a public health crisis -- as thousands of displaced survivors cram shelters and hospitals.

Many have been left homeless by the killer wave, and fear going back to their communities.

"I'm here because people said there could another tsunami," Etin Supriatin said from an evacuation centre in shattered Labuan.

- 'No reason to stay' -

The disaster agency dispatched helicopters to drop supplies into hard-to-reach communities, while hundreds of residents on tiny islands in the Sunda Strait were airlifted or taken by boat to shelters.

"We tried to stay because it's our island, but after a while we got scared," said Sariyah, a 45-year-old resident of tiny Sebesi island, who evacuated to the mainland on a boat.

"My house has been destroyed so there's no more reason to stay."

Sniffer dogs are being used to find those still missing as grief-stricken relatives line up at identification centres.

But hopes of finding any survivors beneath the rubble have dwindled.

Tubagus Cecep, 63, waited nervously at the area's main identification centre to see if a body was that of his missing son.

"I'm scared my son is dead, but if I keep my faith in God maybe he could have been swept away somewhere and is still alive," he said.

At the Tanjung Lesung resort, cars and minibuses had been thrown against buildings, concrete walls cracked into small pieces and trees uprooted. A wooden sign that read "Good Times" lay on the ground.

The tsunami struck the resort as more than 200 workers from the state electricity company were watching pop band "Seventeen" perform.

The four-member group was hurled from the stage as the water slammed into the audience -- only the band's lead vocalist survived.

The tsunami was Indonesia's third major natural disaster in six months, following a series of powerful earthquakes on the island of Lombok in July and August and a quake-tsunami in September that killed around 2,200 people in Palu on Sulawesi island, with thousands more missing and presumed dead.

On Wednesday, thousands prayed for loved ones at mass graves and mosques to mark the 14th anniversary of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, which killed some 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean.

Indonesia, a vast Southeast Asian archipelago, is one of the most disaster-hit nations on Earth due to its position straddling the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates collide.

bur-hp-rws-dsa/pb/rma/jh


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SHAKE AND BLOW
Hunt for survivors as Indonesian tsunami death toll tops 280
Carita, Indonesia (AFP) Dec 24, 2018
Indonesian rescuers raced to find survivors Monday after a volcano-triggered tsunami killed at least 281 people, with experts warning the devastated region could be slammed by more deadly waves. Rescue teams used their bare hands, diggers and other heavy equipment to haul debris from the stricken area around the Sunda Strait, as thousands were evacuated to higher ground. The powerful tsunami struck without any warning on Saturday night, sweeping over popular beaches of southern Sumatra and the w ... read more

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