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Padang : Planes and helicopters delivering rescuers, medicine and other supplies landed for the first time today on remote Indonesian islands that were pounded by a 3-meter tsunami, sweeping away villages and killing at least 154 people.
For days, rough seas and bad weather have hampered relief operations, leaving residents to fend for themselves. With not
enough people to dig graves, corpses littered beaches and roads, according to district chief, Edison Salelo Baja.
Fisherman were scouring waters in search of survivors.
The fault line that ruptured Monday on Sumatra island's coast also caused the 2004 quake and monster Indian Ocean
tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.
Disaster officials were still trying to reach more than a dozen villages on the hardest hit Mentawai islands, a popular
surfer's destination that is usually reachable only by a 12-hour boat ride.
But they were preparing for the worst today, with hundreds of body bags being sent to the scene, said Mujiharto,
who heads the Health Ministry's crisis center.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, meanwhile, cut short a state visit to Vietnam to deal with two major disasters that
struck Indonesian in less than 24 hours. The country's most volatile volcano, Mount Merapi, 800 miles (1,300 kilometers)
to the east, erupted at dusk yesterday, sending up searing ash clouds and killing at least 28 people, including an old man
who was considered the mountain's spiritual gate-keeper. (AP)
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enough people to dig graves, corpses littered beaches and roads, according to district chief, Edison Salelo Baja.
Fisherman were scouring waters in search of survivors.
The fault line that ruptured Monday on Sumatra island's coast also caused the 2004 quake and monster Indian Ocean
tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.
Disaster officials were still trying to reach more than a dozen villages on the hardest hit Mentawai islands, a popular
surfer's destination that is usually reachable only by a 12-hour boat ride.
But they were preparing for the worst today, with hundreds of body bags being sent to the scene, said Mujiharto,
who heads the Health Ministry's crisis center.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, meanwhile, cut short a state visit to Vietnam to deal with two major disasters that
struck Indonesian in less than 24 hours. The country's most volatile volcano, Mount Merapi, 800 miles (1,300 kilometers)
to the east, erupted at dusk yesterday, sending up searing ash clouds and killing at least 28 people, including an old man
who was considered the mountain's spiritual gate-keeper. (AP)
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