The death toll from the Indonesian tsunami rose to nearly 550 yesterday as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono vowed to speed up the installation of a nationwide system capable of warning coastal communities of killer waves by mid-2008.
Yudhoyono stopped to talk to a mother of five while visiting a camp in Pangandaran's city center. She said all of her children had survived, but she lost a nephew to the sea and is now forced to share a tent with three other families.
"Please be strong," Yudhoyono told her.
PHOTO: AP
The words of encouragement came a day after the president promised to take action to prevent another catastrophe.
"We want to expedite efforts to get infrastructure for the tsunami warning system," Yudhoyono said late on Thursday. "I will work with parliament to get the budget."
Monday's powerful quake sent towering waves crashing into a 180km stretch of Java's southern coast, destroying scores of houses, restaurants and hotels.
Authorities did not pass on any warnings to officials or residents on the coast despite receiving two bulletins from regional tsunami agencies that the quake had the potential to trigger a killer wave.
Since the disaster, officials have given different explanations of their actions after the warnings were received, as well as the timeline of events, leading to criticism by lawmakers and the media in the country worst hit by the 2004 Asian tsunami.
"After receiving those warnings, the government should have asked television stations and radio to immediately pass on the information. If this had happened, it is very likely that the lose of life would have been lessened," Koran Tempo daily said.
Indonesia's national disaster coordinating board said yesterday that 547 people had been killed and 323 others were missing in the disaster. It said more than 50,000 had fled their homes, either because the structures were damaged or destroyed or because people feared another tsunami.
Java was unaffected by the 2004 Asian tsunami that killed at least 216,000 people in a dozen Indian Ocean nations. More than half the deaths occurring in Aceh Province on neighboring Sumatra island.
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