My heart goes out to the people of Indonesia who are constantly facing natural disasters all the time.
Amplify’d from thestar.com.my
Death toll in Indonesian tsunami, volcano tops 340
Hundreds were still missing after Monday's 10-foot (3-meter) wave spawned by a massive quake struck the remote Mentawi islands off western Sumatra, where rescue officials - kept away for days because of stormy seas and bad weather - started arriving at the scene to chart the scope of the devastation.
The islands lie close to the epicenter of the 7.7-magnitude quake that struck late Monday beneath the ocean floor. The fault line on Sumatra island's coast is the same one that caused the 2004 quake and tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean.
Indonesia's version, completed in 2008 with German aid, has since fallen into such disrepair that it effectively stopped working about a month ago, according to the head of the Meteorology and Geophysic Agency.
The system, which uses buoys to electronically detect sudden changes in water level, worked when it was completed, but by 2009 routine tests of it were showing problems, said the agency chief, who uses the single name Fauzi.
By last month, he said, the entire system was broken because of inexperienced operators.
On the ash-covered slopes of Mount Merapi, authorities continued a search for more victims.
About 36,000 people have been evacuated, according to the Indonesian Red Cross. Some defied authorities and returned home to check on crops and possessions left behind. More than 11,000 people live on Merapi's fertile slopes.
Among the dead from Tuesday's eruption was an 83-year-old man named Maridjan, who was entrusted by a late king from the nearby city of Yogyakarta to watch over the mountain's unpredictable spirits. He had refused to leave his house high on its slopes.
The discovery Wednesday of his ash-covered body, reportedly found in a position of Islamic prayer, kneeling face-down on the floor, rattled residents who for years joined his ceremonies to appease the rumbling giant by throwing rice, clothes and chickens into the crater.
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YURAN PERAMAH
14 years ago
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