Indonesia seeks answers after tsunami kills 368

PANGANDARAN, Indonesia, July 19: Thousands awoke from a second night on mosque floors or under makeshift shelters on Indonesia's Java island as authorities grappled with the aftermath of a tsunami that killed at least 368 people.

As efforts continued to find 235 people still missing, the media yesterday questioned why there was no warning ahead of Monday's killer waves despite regional efforts to set up early alert systems after the massive Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004.

The Jakarta Post said in an an editorial that the country's National Disaster Management Coordination Board had done ''nothing of note to increase people's preparedness for disasters''.

''Preparedness also covers efforts to build effective early warning systems based on sophisticated information and communication technologies,'' the daily said.

Heavy equipment to search for bodies under the rubble was in place on Wednesday along parts of the 160-km (100-mile) stretch of south Java's coastline that was battered by waves after a 7.7-magnitude undersea earthquake.

Officals said there were four dead foreigners, including a Dutch national, a Swede, a Japanese and a Belgian.

More than 54,000 people were displaced from wrecked fishing villages and beach resorts, adding to the rehabilitation headache for the authorities after an earthquake that killed more than 5,700 people in central Java less than two months earlier.

REUTERS