By Ludya Arica Bakti
(Pakistan News & Features Services)
The joint teams
continue to sweep, evacuate, search and rescue tsunami victims along the
tsunami-affected areas in the Sunda Strait, Indonesia. Some of the areas that
were previously difficult to access because of damaged road and covered by
tsunami-washed material have been reached by the officers, vehicles and heavy
equipments.
The National Agency
for Disaster Management (BNPB) has warned that the potential of the Sunda
Strait tsunami could still occur. This is because of the eruption of Anak
Krakatoa volcano which continues to occur and can re-create underwater
landslides that have caused the tsunami.
"The potential
for aftershocks caused by underwater avalanches is still potential because
eruption activities are still ongoing," the BNPB Head of Information and
Public Relations Centre, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, was quoted as saying.
The tsunami in the
Sunda Strait occurred on December 22. This disaster affected the west coast of
Banten and South Lampung. According to the BNPB release on December 25, the
death toll had increased to 481. In addition, 1,485 people were injured, 154
were still missing, and 16,082 were displaced.
According to Sutopo,
the eruption of Anak Krakatoa volcano has been going on since last June.
He disclosed that this
volcanic eruption is of the strombolian type, which constantly throws
incandescent lava and volcanic ash.
"The type is like
that and a two kilometer radius from the top of the crater is declared a
dangerous zone," he said.
The tsunami affected
five districts, Pandeglang and Serang in Banten Province, as well as South
Lampung Regency, Pesawaran and Tanggamus in Lampung Province.
The scientists,
including those from Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics agency, have
reckoned that tsunami could have been caused by landslides, either above ground
or under water, on the steep slope of the erupting volcano.
A powerful quake on
the island of Lombok killed 505 people in August while the tsunami and
earthquake that hit Sulawesi in September killed more than 2100 people and
thousands of people are still believed to be buried in neighborhood swallowed
by a quake phenomenon known as liquefaction.
The tsunami on
December 22, 2018 reminded many of the massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake that
had hit Indonesia on December 26, 2004. It had spawned a giant tsunami off
Sumatra Island, killing more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, the majority
in Indonesia.
Meanwhile in a
separate place Acehnese held remembrance and prayer together at the Aceh
Government Liaison Agency office in Jakarta early on December 26 to commemorate
the 14th anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that hit the coast of the
Indian Ocean and devastated around 200 thousand lives in Aceh on December 26,
2004.
