The death toll from a tsunami which struck parts of the coastline of the western Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra has reached at least 430 with almost 1,500 more injured.
The tsunami, which hit coastal communities on Saturday night, was triggered by volcanic activity on Anak Krakatau, a volcano located in the Sunda Strait. About 64 hectares of the volcano had reportedly been displaced, causing the equivalent of an earthquake of magnitude between 3.4 and 5 and resulting in waves of up to five metres high striking surrounding islands.
Thousands of people remain in evacuation camps and some 150 people were still missing as of Wednesday. Hundreds of buildings have been destroyed or damaged.
Catholic international aid and development organisation Caritas expressed concern on Wednesday that with emergency teams still to reach all affected areas, the full extent of damage and lives lost was not yet known.
“It’s difficult to enter the region because it’s quite far from any main roads, and roads themselves are damaged,” said Yanti Maulida, of Las Harfa, a Caritas Australia partner based in Pandeglang, Indonesia.
Earlier, an Indonesian staff member of World Vision – health specialist Dr Natasya Phebe – who happened to be on holiday in the affected area, described the impact of the tsunami.
“I was actually at a restaurant on the beach right before the tsunami hit,” Dr Phoebe said. “I noticed the level of the sea was higher and there was lots of garbage in the water. Then I heard the ocean rumbling and felt an odd vibration.”
“We decided to leave and then 10 minutes later the tsunami hit and now that restaurant is gone. People are here for Christmas vacation, so many of the injured and deceased are tourists. We are seeing lots of multiple trauma injuries, and head trauma.”
Tim Costello, World Vision Australia chief advocate, said the tsunami came as a “crisis on top of a crisis for Indonesia”.
“It’s another blow for Indonesia, which has already been dealing with two major emergencies recently – the Lombok earthquake and the Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami,” he said. “We desperately hope that this tsunami is not nearly as devastating as what we have seen in recent months in Indonesia.”
