‘Water is coming’: False alarms after tsunami

Panicked residents, police and soldiers in this remote fishing village clobbered by a devastating weekend tsunami ran to higher ground, shouting “Water is coming! Water is coming!” and reciting verses from the Koran as emergency messages were broadcast over mosque speakers.

It proved to be a false alarm, but a similar frenzy broke out in Tanjung Lesung, another tsunami-stricken area located hours away, as unsettled survivors of the disaster remained traumatised by a tragedy that killed more than 420 people and left thousands homeless.

Unlike other tsunamis that have hit Indonesia following large earthquakes, the big waves blasted ashore at night without warning. The eruption of Anak Krakatau, or Child of Krakatoa, a volcano in the Sunda Strait, is believed to have created a landslide on the volcano’s slope, displacing a large volume of water that slammed into Java and Sumatra.

People in Sumur village, which has been slow to receive aid due to roads being cut off, remained stunned by how quickly the tsunami hit. The beach, located just a few kilometres from Umang near Java’s western tip, is popular for snorkelling. The tsunami decimated the area, ripping houses from their foundations and bulldozing concrete buildings.

Scientists have said the tsunami’s waves were recorded in several places at about 1m high, but residents of Sumur insisted they towered more than 3m there. They said a soaring white wall of water roared toward them at high speeds, ripping trees out of the ground by their roots.

“There was no sign of a tsunami when we were at the beach. The sea didn’t recede,” said Tati Hayati, a housewife, who was enjoying a pleasant evening with 10 other people when the disaster hit. “It was calm and bright with the full moon.”

When she spotted high, fastmoving waves launching toward the shore, she ran to her car and managed to get inside. But she couldn’t outrun it. She said the car was struck by three waves, breaking out the back window and filling the vehicle with gushing water.

“We were locked inside. The car was swaying in the waves and we thought we would all die,” Hayati said. “We almost could not breathe and I almost gave up when I groped the key in the water and managed to open the door, and the water began to recede. We got out of the car and ran to safety.”

The death toll climbed to 429, with more than 1400 people injured and at least 128 missing, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for Indonesia’s Disaster Mitigation Agency.