No warning because tsunami alert system had been vandalised
MENTAWAI ISLANDS – Planes and helicopters packed with rescue workers and supplies landed yesterday on remote Indonesian islands that were pounded by a 3m tsunami, as a news report said Indonesia’s tsunami warning system had been vandalised and so failed to warn the islanders.
Two buoys off the Mentawai islands were vandalised and out of service when the tsunami struck, Mr Ridwan Jamaluddin of the Indonesian Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology told the BBC.
There were no tsunami warnings. The waves swept away villages and killed at least 282 people and left more than 400 others missing.
The first aerial surveys of the region yesterday revealed huge swathes of land underwater and homes in heaps of rubble. Disaster officials were trying to reach more than a dozen villages on the Mentawai island chain which can be reached only by a 12-hour boat ride.
The 7.7-magnitude quake that struck late on Monday just 20km beneath the ocean floor was followed by at least 14 aftershocks, the largest measuring 6.2.
However, scientists from the Earth Observatory of Singapore and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences said Monday’s quake was a large aftershock of an 8.4-magnitude quake that hit Sumatra on Sept 12, 2007.
The scientists believe that based on patterns of large earthquakes over the past seven centuries, the current sequence of earthquakes will eventually culminate in a much larger quake, approaching the size of the one that caused the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, meanwhile, cut short a state visit to Vietnam to deal with the two major disasters that struck Indonesia in less than 24 hours.
“I want to see for myself the condition of the victims,” he told reporters in Hanoi. AP
“I was deeply saddened to learn of the destruction caused by the tsunami that struck the Mentawai Islands following the earthquake on Monday night, and the eruption of Mount Merapi on Tuesday.
“On behalf of the government and people of Singapore, I would like to convey my heartfelt condolences to those who were affected by the disasters, especially the families of those who have lost loved ones.
“Your government has taken swift relief and rescue efforts, and attended to the needs of those who have been evacuated.
“Singapore stands ready to support and assist Indonesia in whatever way we can. I am confident that under your able and steadfast leadership, Indonesia will recover from these unfortunate disasters with resilience.”
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