Jamie Fullerton – The Guardian
All 106 of the bodies had been cleared, but signs of Saturday’s party at Java’s Tanjung Lesung beach resort remained.
It was in this spot that the pop band Seventeen were playing their music to fans and revellers when Saturday’s tsunami smashed through. Now, crumpled metal stage supports intertwined with broken chairs overlook the Sunda Strait, on the west coast of Indonesia’s Banten province, from where the tsunami emerged to wash away the crowd. Soldiers on survivor search duty, some with sniffer dogs, walked past empty dented musical instrument cases. Drones buzzed overhead as one policeman quietly admitted that he would be amazed if more survivors were found.
“There were men, women and babies,” resort director Kunto Wijoyo told the Guardian, recalling how he helped move the bodies littering the resort at first light on Sunday. He said 106 people died around the hotel, with Indonesian authorities confirming on Tuesday that the total death toll from the disaster was 429 across Java and Sumatra, on the other side of the Sunda Strait.
The toll for the tsunami, confirmed by the Indonesian government to have been caused by land shifting on the nearby Anak Krakatau volcano, is likely to rise further, with 154 people still reported missing in the accident zone and more than 1,500 injured.
With the waves destroying hundreds of houses, 16,082 people in tsunami-affected regions were confirmed as displaced. There are lingering fears that more buildings are at risk of collapse or being hit by new waves.
Many sought refuge from the rainy season showers in government-run refugee camps dotted along the Banten coast.
Kusnadi, 56, was among them, and, as well as worrying about the structural stability of his home, he was concerned about his mental wellbeing. He was shaken to the core by seeing two washed-up bodies on Sunday morning, he explained as he toyed with a cigarette.
“I didn’t see the waves, I just heard a sound: ‘Uuuuuuurg’. There was no sign of it coming, and I fell. Stalls were swept away, people were running, the water chased me.
“I just ran for my life. In the morning, I came back and saw two bodies by the beach. They were bloated, like they’d swallowed too much water, and their fish sacks were still attached to their bodies. I think they were pushed against the port wall. I’m scared to see the ocean now, even when it’s calm I feel scared. I haven’t got the courage to go back to my house because it’s by the beach.”
Elsewhere in the lively camp, there was little overt anguish on display, despite the Indonesian government admitting that warning systems for volcano-triggered tsunamis are basically non-existent. Indonesia’s tsunami-related buoy warning system has not worked properly since 2012 but a government official said that construction on a warning system capable of detecting tsunamis caused by undersea landslides would begin next year. Tanjung Lesung resort director Wijoyo said he would like to see a breakwater built in the area.
The thoughts of most locals, though, remained closer to home. Early this morning, Lampung Omo, 50, picked through piles of splintered wood by the roadside where her sister’s food stall had stood until a few days ago.
“This was her only income,” Omo said. “I can’t stop thinking about her future. I’m traumatised by what happened, but maybe in the future we can rebuild this stall.” Wearing a plastic poncho, she gestured towards two grubby metal spoons she’d picked up from the ground. “Now I’m just looking for stuff that can still be used.”
For now, at least, scores of volunteers are on hand to aid the displaced. The Red Cross and Christian charity World Vision, plus local NGOs such as Aksi Cepat Tanggap, have been providing medical assistance and shelter alongside government services. Some said supplies were running low.
Aula Arriani, working with the Red Cross in Banten province, said that authorities issuing warnings about the imminent prospect of further potentially dangerous waves was causing difficulties in getting aid distributed widely. “We’re finding that communities are quite jittery,” she said.
In a sign of the level of fear, hundreds of panicked residents, many sobbing and clutching small children, tried to flee Sumber Jaya village on Tuesday as false rumours spread that another tsunami was about to strike. People clambered on to the back of vehicles or ran through the traffic in a bid to reach the safety of higher ground, as the water level rose appeared to rise in the sea. “Run up to the hills – water!” they screamed.
Police and rescue workers tried to help get people out, but the local mosque soon revealed the truth over its loudspeaker: the rising waterline was just a regular tidal surge.
One person who was searching for the silver lining of the disaster was Bahrudin, 40, whose SUV had been swept into a flooded field by the tsunami, which had smashed through a two-metre wall before it got to the vehicle. He grinned and replied “Yes!” enthusiastically when asked if his car was insured, meaning a shiny new motor would be on the way.
He was far from smiling, however, as he recalled the moment the wave hit him. It struck as he was walking along the coast area with friends on Saturday night, and he was knocked out by the force of the wave.
“I saw that the waves were higher than the wall,” he said. “I tried to run but there was no time, they swallowed me. I fell unconscious then woke up about 200 metres away – right over there, in that paddy field. I just ran home, and luckily I found that my family had survived.”
He added that despite having numerous fresh red scars dotted around his body, he had been one of the lucky ones in the area, simply to have survived while so many others perished.
