Indonesia’s tsunami death toll now over 400 as officials warn that more deadly waves possible
The death toll from Indonesia’s Christmas-time tsunami continues to rise, as officials warn that additional volcanic landslides could trigger more deadly waves.
Posted by Leslie Eastman
On the other side of the world, Sicily’s Mt. Etna puts on a Christmas show.
At least 429 people died, more than 1,400 were injured and another 158 are missing as of Tuesday morning, more than two days after the wave came crashing ashore on the northwest coast of Java, one of the large islands comprising the country, officials said.
The threat did not disappear with the waves themselves, as officials were warning residents and tourists to stay as far away from coastal areas as possible on Monday because continued volcanic eruptions from Mount Anak Krakatau could potentially trigger a second devastating tsunami.
More than 600 housing units and at least nine hotels were destroyed or badly damaged in the tsunami, according to Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, head of public relations for the Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency. He said more than 16,000 people have been displaced.
“In our initial report on the disaster, I noted that members of a popular “boy band” were filmed being hit by the wave. Only the lead singer appears to have survived, and the wave claimed his 26-year old wife’s life as well.”
The lead singer of the local group “Seventeen,” Riefian Fajarsyah, included a video of himself stroking his bride’s white coffin in a heartbreaking Instagram post from the back of a hearse.
“How can I live without you, Dylan Sahara?” Fajarsyah, 35, wrote of his wife, to his 1.9 million followers.
Eerie video footage had shown fans clapping and cheering at the band’s beachside performance in Java on Saturday night — seconds before a huge wave smashed onto the stage.
The frontman’s wife, an Indonesian actress and TV-personality, was one of the dozens of people swept away by the wave.
Her body was identified at a hospital late Monday, according to local reports.
The group’s drummer, Wisnu Andi Darmawan was also found dead Monday — as the group’s bassist Muhammad Awal Purbani, guitarist Herman Sikumbang, manager Oki Wijaya and crew member Rukmana Rustam were laid to rest.
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake occurred on 26 December, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Sumatra. Named the Boxing Day tsunamis, communities along the surrounding coasts of the Indian Ocean were seriously affected, and the tsunamis killed an estimated 227,898 people in 14 countries.
One would think an early warning system of wave buoys and other observation systems would have been installed after this disaster to predict potential tsunami activity. Or perhaps they were and the indications were just missed. A tragic occurrence either way.
The rest of the article, including Etna’s eruption, can be viewed here: Legal Insurrection
Category: Breaking News, Media, Search and Rescue
Sad, very sad. But, Mother Nature has a way of showing us how truly insignificant we humans are in the universe. Thinking otherwise is quite arrogant.
Prayers up for all the victims and their families.
“The lead singer…included a video of himself stroking his bride’s white coffin in a heartbreaking Instagram post from the back of a hearse.” Bwahahahahahah. Lookie! I feel so bad. I post selfie to Instagram to prove it.
Damn near as funny as McCain’s 34-year old daughter posting a Merry Christmas message to Dad, “wherever you are.” What is with these people?
“What is it with these people?”
Great question, actually.
These are the same fuggin’ people who take pictures of their food at a restaurant and post the picture to update their status…just so they can see people “LIKE” their status.
Dafook we going to with you, Cav? Compassion just falls off of you in sheets, and someone has to clean it all up. I’d nominate Yef, but he’s UA*.
*AWOL to you Nautically Challenged types.
Hey, I really am sorry that 200k+ people were wiped out in 2004 and several hundreds last week. Really. It’s just that I see the quirky, crazy stuff too that gets little attention. For instance, six paragraphs dedicated in the reposted article to a local band that no one ever heard of is funny, to me.
Yeah, I probably should have cropped some more of the unknown rocker’s verbiage out. I think he’s getting a lot of press ’cause he was in the video playing with the band when the wave rolled in. It helps to have a live human for a human interest story.
Anak Krakatau is still erupting. No surprise to me, but I had hoped it would settle down for a while.
Sicily had several quakes ahead of the main eruption, up to 4.3, and then after Etna sneezed hard, another quake at 4.8. Lots of damage to churches and homes and businesses. These pictures are from Fleri, Sicily.
https://qz.com/1507842/mount-etna-eruptions-shake-sicily-with-earthquakes/
I bet the glowbull warming/climate change progtards are already working on their “science” analysis that Trump caused this disaster because he is not having us follow the Paris Climate convention sell-out to the turd world.
I would think a country of islands subject to these kinds of disasters would have an early warning system of say a series of light ships sort of like the old Coast Guard light ships but equipped with sensors for this.
You think, “Hey, maybe those folks don’t have TVs.” They most certainly do. Then you think, “Maybe they are not big on cell phones.” They are. In fact, its FB usage is in the stratosphere. So, what’s the problem with notification? Government.
The buoy system has been out of commission for months now, they’ve known about needing to fix it but the corruption keeps it from getting done. Now a bunch of people are dead and more still to, probably, die.
I was afraid this was the problem, but not surprised.
Evidently no one of any horsepower lives on or near the beach.
I am a geologist and in normal events such as earthquakes they can be quickly detected. What you can’t do is detect events inside an ongoing period of volcanism. Volcanoes and plate tectonics are connected but continental plate shifts and fault movements are what causes earthquakes. Events such as major submarine landslips have a variety of causes that have nothing to do with plate tectonics. Check out the Storegga Slides. The reason behind it could have been quake triggered but more likely was the build up of glacial debris in the last ice age. The resultant tsunamis overwhelmed the mesolithic cultures who lived on what is now the North Sea, aside from post glacial sea level rise. Not an easy subject
Thanks, PD for your comment. The news I posted mentioned a volcanic landslide as the likely cause of the tsunami. I’ve also read that tsunamis in the open ocean are relatively benign, but become a potential disaster when the ocean bottom begins to shoal and the wave stacks up. These poor folks never had a chance.
I’ll also note in passing that regardless of the topic, someone out there in DW land is an expert on the subject. Never ceases to amaze.