Doctors worked to save injured victims while hundreds of military and volunteers scoured debris-strewn beaches in search of survivors Monday after a deadly tsunami gushed ashore without warning on Indonesian islands, killing at least 281 people on a busy holiday weekend. The Reuters news agency reported rescuers were using everything from heavy machinery to their bare hands hoping to find survivors. In addition, cleanup was beginning on some affected beaches, Reuter said.
Along with those who perished, more than 1,000 people were hurt. Dozens remained missing from the disaster areas along the coastlines of western Java and southern Sumatra islands, and the numbers could increase once authorities hear from all stricken areas. Reuters said some 12,000 people evacuated to higher ground.
The waves that swept terrified locals and tourists into the sea Saturday night followed an eruption on Anak Krakatau, or “Child of Krakatoa,” one of the world’s most infamous volcanic islands.
The 1,000-foot-high Anak Krakatau volcano lies on an island in the Sunda Strait linking the Indian Ocean and Java Sea. It’s been erupting since June and did so again about 24 minutes before the tsunami, Indonesia’s Meteorology and Geophysics agency said.
The cause of the tsunami that followed remained somewhat unclear Monday.
Scientists cited by The Associated Press, including some from the geophysics agency, said it could have been set off by landslides – either above ground or underwater – on the steep slope of the erupting volcano. The scientists also cited tidal waves caused by the full moon as a contributing factor.
Gegar Prasetya, co-founder of the Tsunami Research Center Indonesia, told the AP the tsunami was likely caused by a flank collapse – when a big section of a volcano’s slope gives way.
Reuters quoted scientists as saying the tsunami was triggered a massive underwater landslide that followed the collapse of part of the erupting Anak Krakatau.
The Indonesian Medical Association of the Banten region said it has sent doctors and medical supplies and equipment and that many of the injured were in need of surgery. It said most patients are domestic tourists who were visiting the beach during the long weekend ahead of Christmas.
It was the second deadly tsunami to hit seismically active Indonesia this year. A powerful earthquake triggered a tsunami that hit Sulawesi island in September, giving residents a brief warning before the waves struck.
On Saturday night, however, the ground did not shake to alert people before the waves ripped buildings from their foundations and swept terrified concertgoers celebrating on a resort beach into the sea.
Dramatic video posted on social media showed the Indonesian pop band Seventeen performing under a tent on Tanjung Lesung beach at a concert for employees of a state-owned electricity company. Dozens of people sat at tables while others swayed to the music near the stage as strobe lights flashed and theatrical smoke was released. A child could also be seen wandering through the crowd.
Seconds later, with the drummer pounding just as the next song was about to begin, the stage suddenly heaved forward and buckled under the force of the water, tossing the band and its equipment into the audience.
The group released a statement saying their bass player, guitarist and road manager were killed, while two other band members and the wife of one of the performers were missing. On Monday, five more bodies were recovered around the hotel, including a little boy.
Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said Monday morning that 281 deaths had been confirmed and at least 1,016 people were injured.
Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo arrived by helicopter in the disaster area Monday. A day earlier, he expressed his sympathy and ordered government agencies to respond quickly to the disaster.
In the city of Bandar Lampung, on Sumatra, hundreds of residents took refuge at the governor’s office, while at the popular resort area of Anyer beach, on Java, some survivors wandered in the debris.
Many of the affected areas are popular weekend getaways for residents of Jakarta, but foreigners were also visiting the area over the long holiday weekend. A Norwegian photographer and volcano enthusiast posted on Facebook that he had to run to escape the waves while on the beach photographing the volcano.
The tsunami was not huge and did not surge far inland, but its force was still powerful and destructive. Hotels and hundreds of homes were heavily damaged by the waves. Broken chunks of concrete and splintered sticks of wood littered hard-hit coastal areas, turning popular beach areas into near ghost towns. Debris from thatch-bamboo shacks was strewn along the coast.
Yellow, orange and black body bags were laid out, and weeping relatives identified the dead.
Anak Krakatau formed over years after the 1883 eruption of the Krakatoa volcano, one of the largest, most devastating in recorded history. That disaster killed more than 30,000 people, launched far-reaching tsunamis and created so much ash that day was turned to night in the area and a global temperature drop was recorded.
Most of the island sank into a volcanic crater under the sea, and the area remained calm until the 1920s, when Anak Krakatau began to rise from the site. It continues to grow each year and erupts periodically.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands and home to 260 million people, lies along the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. Roads and infrastructure are poor in many areas, making access difficult in the best of conditions.
A powerful quake on the island of Lombok killed 505 people in August. And the tsunami and earthquake that hit Sulawesi in September killed more than 2,100 people, and thousands more are believed still buried in neighborhoods swallowed by a quake phenomenon known as liquefaction.
Saturday’s tsunami also rekindled memories of the massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake that hit Indonesia on Dec. 26, 2004. It spawned a giant tsunami off Sumatra island, killing more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries – the majority in Indonesia.
