Indonesia Quake, Tsunami Kill at Least Five People

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July 17 (Bloomberg) -- An earthquake struck south of Indonesia's Java island, triggering a tsunami and killing at least five people, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said today in Jakarta.

The 7.2 magnitude quake occurred beneath the sea about 260 kilometers (160 miles) south of Bandung, Java, at 3:19 p.m. local time, according to a preliminary report on the U.S. Geological Survey Web site. There was a 6.1 magnitude aftershock.

``Search teams are still working as we speak,'' Yudhoyono said. ``The local government has started to evacuate people.''

Indonesia was the country worst hit by the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami that devastated coastal communities across the Indian Ocean, killing more than 200,000 people from Indonesia and Thailand to the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Somalia and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.

Today's quake ``generated cascading tsunami waves between three-and-six meters; the largest wave by far was six meters,'' Dr. Puji Pujiono, regional disaster response adviser for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said by telephone from Yogyakarta.

``Rows of houses along the coast were swept away, the waves did not go far inland,'' said Pujiono. There was damage, not ``devastation.''

Tsunami Warnings

India issued a local tsunami warning for the nation's Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

``We will be watching the situation closely for the next 24 hours and our disaster management cell has been activated,'' Ankita Mishra, deputy Commissioner of the Nicobar Islands, said by telephone from Car Nicobar island.

Still, after confirming that an Indonesian tsunami had been triggered, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a bulletin for Indian Ocean areas ``a more widespread tsunami threat probably does not exist.''

``There is no tsunami threat to Thailand,'' said Chitipat Bejraburanin, chief of policy and planning at the National Disaster Warning Center in Bangkok. ``The earthquake had not caused any evacuations or warnings for Thailand's coast.''

Areas further from the epicenter could experience ``sea level changes and strong or unusual coastal currents.''

Phone calls to the Cocos Islands Shire Council and the Christmas Island Shire were not answered, though the calls were made after 7 p.m. local time.

Jakarta

Today's temblor was felt in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. Aftershocks with magnitudes of 6.1 and 6.0 struck the area at 4:13 p.m. and 5:09 p.m. local time, according to bulletins e- mailed by the U.S. Geological Survey.

The tsunami struck the southern Indonesian coastal villages of Cipatujah and Pangandaran, Transport Minister M Hatta Rajasa told reporters after a cabinet meeting. Both villages are on the coast south of Bandung, a popular hillside town in West Java.

State oil company PT Pertamina's refinery in Cilacap on the southern coast of the Central Java province is undamaged from the quakes, Suroso Atmomartoyo, the company's director of processing, said by telephone.

The refinery, the biggest in the country, has a capacity to process 348,000 barrels of oil a day.


Source: Bloomberg
To contact the reporters on this story:
Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja in Jakarta at
wahyudi@bloomberg.net;
Berni Moestafa in Jakarta at bmoestafa@bloomberg.net.

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A GROUP of Australians fled a 2m tsunami that slammed into Java, killing at least 105 people yesterday.



They raced up a hill behind Pangandaran beach on the south coast of the Indonesian island to escape the wall of water triggered by a powerful earthquake in the Indian Ocean.
Thousands of people fled to higher ground along a 180km stretch of the densely populated island's southern coast.

The tsunami smashed hotels, restaurants and homes. But the extent of damage was not clear, police said, with roads blocked and power cut to much of the area.

Santi, a tourist at Pangandaran resort, which according to initial reports appeared to be hardest hit, said she saw about 20 bodies piled up at a local health clinic.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said last night: "The search is continuing for those who are still missing. It is important to take care of the dead and the injured.

"We call on people to evacuate vulnerable areas.

"There have been at least five aftershocks."

About 40 people building a dam were missing.

Military and rescue teams had been sent to Pangandaran beach.

A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said staff had contacted some Australians in the area.

He said the Australians were "safe and well after taking refuge on a hill".

"The embassy is checking with local authorities to determine the extent of the damage caused by the waves and to check whether any other Australians are involved."

The tsunami was caused by a quake 240km southwest of Java's west coast, at 3.24pm (6.24pm in Melbourne). Geoscience Australia recorded the quake at 7.2 on the Richter scale.

The Geoscience Australia spokesman said the earthquake had a depth of 49km, making it a relatively shallow event.

The weather bureau recorded a 60cm surge on its Christmas Island tide gauge and a 10cm surge on Cocos Island.

The tsunami reached northwestern Western Australia about three hours after the quake.

Witness Teti, who had been accompanying Dutch tourists when the waves struck, said: "Waves suddenly came and we ran to the hills.

"Four people from my group are still missing.

"Many small hotels were destroyed.

"Hotels on the beachfront of Pangandaran . . . the front parts are hit.

"Boats have been thrown into hotels."

Teti said she saw three bodies being collected.

Another resident said damage was very bad.

"Children were crying and many are injured," he told El Shinta radio.

Local military chief Asep Kurniadi said waves were as high as 3m.

"The tide wasn't too long and now water has returned to the normal level," he said from the West Java town of Garut.

The quake rattled the capital Jakarta and shook tall buildings.

An aftershock measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale followed about an hour later.

The tsunami brought chilling reminders of the 2004 Boxing Day tragedy that killed 230,000 people and left almost two million homeless, and a damage bill of billions of dollars.

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The death toll from the tsunami on the Indonesian island of Java has risen to more than 300, officials have said.



A woman searches for family members after the tsunamiThe search for survivors is continuing, with desperate villagers and soldiers digging through destroyed homes and hotels in the hope of finding some of the 160 people missing since the two-metre wall of water struck yesterday.

However, Jusuf Kalla, Indonesia's vice president, said the death toll was still expected to climb.

"In a tsunami, it is possible that the number (of dead) will increase, especially those who are missing or who have been washed away to sea," he told Elshinta radio.

Mr Kalla said the government's priority was to provide healthcare, food and shelter and then move to evaluating the damage and reconstruction of houses.

Among the dead are a Swedish man in his fifties. The man was a longtime resident of the area that was struck by the tsunami, Nina Ersman, a Swedish foreign ministry spokesman, said.

Two Swedish children who were holidaying with their father were also missing, she said.

At least 23,000 people fled their homes on Java's south coast when the tsunami struck.

The tsunami was triggered by a magnitude 7.7 earthquake. It crashed into a 177-kilometre stretch of the coast without warning, sending boats, cars and motorbikes crashing into resorts and fishing villages. The worst-hit area was the popular tourist spot Pangandaran.

Indonesia's 17,000 islands sprawl along a belt of intense volcanic and seismic activity, part of what is called the "Pacific Ring of Fire".

Earthquakes are frequent in the region. In May, an earthquake near the city of Yogyakarta in central Java killed more than 5,700.

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PANGANDARAN, Indonesia, July 21 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government Friday urged thousands of tsunami refugees in West Java province to return home, saying another tsunami is less likely.

Around 45,000 people have taken refuge since an earthquake-triggered tsunami swept through 180-km coastline in southern Java Monday, killing at least 588 people.

"It's safe now for them to return home, but they must remain vigilant," West Java Governor Danny Setiawan told reporters at Pangandaran, some 250 km southeast of Jakarta.

He deplored rumors of another tsunami that caused refugees reluctant to return home.

"Tsunami is less likely to re-occur, they can go home," he said.

The governor also said post-disaster reconstruction would need an initial fund of 250 billion rupiah (around 27.2 million U.S. dollars) in the first year.

Earlier Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono arrived to observe the earthquake and tsunami affected locations in Pangandaran and the handling of the emergency response in the areas.

The President on Thursday visited the coastal communities in Banten province and ordered the Banten provincial government to prepare a set of steps and standard procedures that have to be followed by residents in the face of possible tsunami when an earthquake occurs.

The southern coast of Java island was hit by an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, which triggered a tsunami on Monday afternoon, killing at least 588 and destroying or damaging 1,651 houses and buildings, boats and motor vehicles along the coast from West Java to Yogyakarta. It also forced 51,759 people to evacuate. Enditem