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Hundreds missing in Mentawai

JAKARTA LIFE'S STYLE

An earthquake-triggered tsunami swept through the Mentawai Islands in West Sumatra late Monday after a tsunami warning issued following the 7.2-magnitude quake was lifted.

The disaster, the biggest tidal waves since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, killed more than 100 people with hundreds of others still missing on Tuesday, an official said.

Mujiharto, who heads the Health Ministry’s crisis center, said 113 bodies had been recovered so far, the Associated Press reported, with the number of missing victims at between 150 and 500.

Officials from the disaster management posts in North and South Pagai Islands said the disaster had claimed 80 lives and left 102 others missing. There was still no information on 10 hamlets hit by the killer waves.

Roberta Sarokdok, the executive director of Citra Mandiri Foundation, an NGO operating in the area, said that the waves, were up to 3 meters in height.

The waves, she added, reached 600 meters into the islands, washing away hundreds of homes. “[Villagers] died and some are missing,” she told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

The victims are mostly residents from several villages in four districts on Pagai and Sipora Islands: North and South Pagai, Sikapap and South Sipora.

South Pagai and North Pagai Islands, home to 23,000 people, are separated by a small strait as wide as a river and are divided into three districts with 10 villages. Sipora Island, located next to Pagai Island, is home of 14,000 people in two districts and 14 villages.

“Most of the victims were from Malakopak village in South Pagai district, where 16 people were reported dead and 30 others missing,” Roberta said.

Strong winds and rough seas made it hard for rescuers to reach the islands, which were closest to the quake’s epicenter.

Search and rescue teams have been deployed to scour the disaster sites, while the Indonesian Red Cross prepared to send hundreds of body bags.

West Sumatra disaster management agency official Ade Edward warned that the number of casualties may climb.

Most buildings in the coastal village of Betu Monga were destroyed, said Hardimansyah, an official with the regional office of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry.

“Only 40 of the village’s 200 residents have been accounted for, 160 are still missing, mostly women and children,” he told Reuters via telephone. “We have people reporting to the security post here that they could not hold onto their children, that they were swept away. A lot of people are crying.”

A tourist boat carrying 11 foreign surfers ­— eight Australians, one French, Brazilian and Italian — who were earlier reported missing in the disaster, arrived safely in Sikapap.

The disaster also caused damage to the Macaronis surfing resort on North Pagai Island.

On its official website, SurfAid International said the Macaronis resort had suffered extensive damage but that all people had been accounted for, while the capital of the Mentawai islands, Tuapejat, was unaffected.

Police on Mentawai Islands were searching for missing people and setting up emergency posts, said Ronald, a police officer in Sikakap district.

In December 2004, an earthquake off Sumatra with a magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3 triggered a tsunami that killed more than 226,000 people; the deadliest tsunami on record.

Before the 2004 tsunami, geologists warned the Mentawai Islands chain was also susceptible to massive quakes that could trigger tsunamis that could reach the provincial capital Padang.

Surfer’s paradise

• Mentawai Islands are known among surfers across the globe as the third-best place after Hawaii and Haiti for a number of good surfing locations blessed with a pristine and beautiful panorama.
• The best surfing locations can be found along the west coast of North Pagai, South Pagai, Sipora and Siberut — the four inhabited islands in the chain.
• A number of resorts have been built in various places, some of which are operated by foreigners, such as Macaronis Resort on North Pagai Island.
• Foreign tourists visit Mentawai throughout the year, especially from April to November, when the waves are huge, while novice surfers visit the island chain outside those months.
• Transportation is poor in Mentawai as the major means of transportation is by boat, which can take up to four hours to reach the respective villages from Tuapejat, especially when there are huge waves. The villages can be reached by boat from Padang, the provincial capital, in 10 hours.

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