Jakarta: The number of people displaced from their homes after a tsunami hit coastal areas of Indonesia’s Java and Sumatra islands has surged to more than 40,000, an official said on Friday.
Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency said the number of displaced has surged to 40,386 as rescuers have been able to reach previously inaccessible areas and evacuated people from there.
More villagers in Sebesi, an inhabited island closest to Mount Anak Krakatau volcano island in Sunda Strait, have been evacuated to the mainland in Lampung Selatan, agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told journalists.
“The island lies about 19 kilometres from the volcano. It has 2,814 population and 1,600 have been evacuated from the island. We will continue to evacuate the rest of the villagers there,” he said.
The death toll however fell from previously 430 people to 426, after further verification found that some identities were reported twice at emergency posts in Pandeglang and Serang districts, two of the five districts affected by the tsunami that hit Lampung and Banten provinces.
The two districts in Banten province are lined with popular beaches and seaside cottages. They were busy with tourists spending the weekend before Christmas when the tsunami swamped the areas last Saturday.
“The number of people injured is now 7,202 and 23 people are still unaccounted for,” Nugroho said.
The volcano, whose eruptions last week caused a silent tsunami, continues to erupt and spew out columns of hot ash into the sky, but the wind is predominantly blowing to south-west and sending the volcanic ash over the Indian Ocean.
On Wednesday, the prevailing wind was unusually blowing to the east, sending the ash over Cilegon and Serang, two cities in Banten. “Six international flights and three domestic flights have been rerouted to avoid the eruptions,” Nugroho said. — dpa
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