Javanese people displaced by a tsunami receive boiled rice at a relief camp in Pangandaran on July 18.

The area hit by the disaster was spared by the devastating 2004 Asian tsunami, and many residents said they did not feel the 7.7-magnitude undersea quake that unleashed the 2-meter-high wall of water.

Some recognized the danger when they saw the sea recede and fled to higher ground. A black wave shot to shore a half hour later, sending boats, cars and motorbikes crashing into resorts and fishing villages. The water reached 300 meters inland.

At least 23,000 people fled their homes, because they were destroyed or in fear of another tsunami after the disaster.

"We saw a big wall of black water. I ran with my son in my arms and when I looked back, the waves had destroyed our house," said Ita Anita, who was on the beach with her child and other relatives.

Pedi Mulyadi, a 43-year-old food vendor, said he was waiting on the beach for customers when the wave struck, killing his wife, Ratini, 33. The pair were clinging to one another when they were swallowed by the torrent of water and pulled 30 meters inland, he said.

"Then we were hit, I think by a piece of wood," Mulyadi said. "When the water finally pulled away, she was dead."

Indonesia was hardest hit by a 2004 tsunami that killed at least 216,000 people in a dozen nations along the Indian Ocean rim.

Though the country started to install an early warning system after that disaster, it is still in the early stages, covering only Sumatra.

The Japan Times Weekly: July 22, 2006
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