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| Itb seems you can't save some people from their government? |
paraclete |
07/19/06 |
when all its about is saving face
Tsunami warnings 'not sent'
From: By Cindy Wockner in Central Java
July 19, 2006
AP INDONESIAN officials failed to pass on expert warnings that the deadly tsunami was on its way, a government minister confessed early this morning.
Jakarta was told up to 45 minutes before tragedy struck that deadly waves would likely follow Monday's undersea earthquake.
In a bizarrely frank admission, Science and Technology Minister Kusmayanto Kadiman said alerts were sent from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre and Japan's Meteorological Agency after the quake, but "we did not announce them".
"If it (the tsunami) did not occur, what would have happened?" he said to reporters in Jakarta, apparently suggesting efforts to avoid an unnecessary mass panic. He did not elaborate.
With just 45 minutes' notice, but without an automated system to pass warnings on to villagers via loudspeakers or mobile phone text messages, it is unlikely a large-scale evacuation could have been achieved.
However, the failure will cause anger among shaken survivors and grieving relatives of the more than 340 dead.
Yesterday - before Mr Kadiman's admission - three Australians living in the idyllic West Java coastal village of Batu Keras told how the only warning they had was a roar like the sound of screaming jet engines and a fishing boat flying through the air.
Similar tales were being told up and down the stretch of West Java's coastline that fell victim to the notorious "Pacific Ring of Fire" which has claimed so many lives in the past two years.
Former Darwin bank manager Lyal Mackintosh, 59, was reading a book at his home 100m from the beach when he heard a roaring noise.
"If you have ever been outside an airport terminal when a 747 starts its engines, that's what it sounded like," he said.
"It was a roar. I just jumped on my motorbike and took off."
He caught a glimpse of the biggest of the waves to wash over the beachfront, and said it was about 4m high.
The Bay Surf Shop, for which Mr Mackintosh imports surfboards from Australia, was almost demolished by a fishing boat.
Fellow Australians, Andrew Warmbrunn, of Geelong and Grahame Malligan, of Sydney, were sitting at home chatting when they felt the quake.
"About 40 minutes after that I heard a noise and I looked through the palm trees and saw a boat heading up into the air," Mr Warmbrunn said.
"It started off a little bit quiet and then we looked up and it was an aeroplane at full roar. I ran inside the house and yelled 'tsunami' to my wife, grabbed my son and wife and ran."
Mr Warmbrunn did not even look over his shoulder to see the wave.
Mr Warmbrunn, 34, has been living in the village for the past year, finishing a Newcastle University thesis on the fishing industry and local economy.
With 171 of the village's 300 boats now destroyed, Mr Warmbrunn is not sure what will become of his thesis.
Sydney man Grahame Malligan, 45, fared a little better. The two fishing boats which his Indonesian wife owns were damaged but not destroyed.
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