INDONESIA is battling to get aid to remote islands as the death toll from this week's tsunami topped 400 and bodies lay strewn on beaches or in debris.
Disaster response officials said yesterday the toll from the wave that hit the Mentawai island chain off the west coast of Sumatra on Tuesday could pass 600.
Almost 13,000 people are living in makeshift camps on the islands after their homes were wiped out in the wave triggered by a 7.7-magnitude earthquake.
Elsewhere in the disaster-prone archipelago, the region's most active volcano, Mount Merapi, was spewing lava 3.5km down its slopes and raining ash, threatening residents who returned to their homes after an eruption on Wednesday killed 34 people.
On the Mentawais, the death toll stood at 408 last night, with 303 people still missing. Officials said up to 200 of these were not expected to be found alive.
Injured survivors at an overstretched hospital lay on the floor near an orphaned two-month-old baby found in a storm drain.
Rainwater dripped onto the survivors from holes in the ceiling. "We need doctors, specialists, " said nurse Anputra, as the baby lay in a humidified crib at the tiny hospital in Pagai Utara.
One survivor, Sarifinus, 35, cradled his five-year-old son, Dimas, who screamed as medical staff tended to his broken arm.
The man said when the huge wave came he grabbed his two other young sons and ran towards the mountain. The wall of water tore both from his arms and sucked them away.
Sarifinus and his wife, Martina, who sat staring blankly in a corner, found Dimas alive after the waters receded.
Indonesia initially refused offers of foreign aid, but Australia said Jakarta had accepted about $US1 million ($1.02m) worth of assistance for both disasters.
Troops and warships have been sent to the region but more helicopters and boats are needed to ferry aid to isolated communities, some of which lack roads and wireless communications. Dave Jenkins of health agency Surfaid International, based in the Mentawais, said conditions were difficult. "Bad weather is forecast and a severely challenging situation has been made a lot worse."
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited the area yesterday, telling survivors the government was doing everything it could to help them.
Officials have deflected questions about why an expensive warning system - set up after the 2004 Asian tsunami killed almost 170,000 people on Sumatra and nearby islands - failed to alert people on the Mentawais.
The head of the Indonesian meteorological agency denied reports that vandalism to the early-warning buoys had prevented people in the tsunami area from receiving a warning to flee to higher ground.
"Yes, some of our sensors disappear because they are stolen, such as seismographs and solar cells," Sri Woro Harijono said. "But it is just one or three sensors out of 100. The system works fine."
The system was installed after the 2004 tsunami killed 226,000 people, 168,000 of them in Aceh.
Disaster response officials said yesterday the toll from the wave that hit the Mentawai island chain off the west coast of Sumatra on Tuesday could pass 600.
Almost 13,000 people are living in makeshift camps on the islands after their homes were wiped out in the wave triggered by a 7.7-magnitude earthquake.
Elsewhere in the disaster-prone archipelago, the region's most active volcano, Mount Merapi, was spewing lava 3.5km down its slopes and raining ash, threatening residents who returned to their homes after an eruption on Wednesday killed 34 people.
On the Mentawais, the death toll stood at 408 last night, with 303 people still missing. Officials said up to 200 of these were not expected to be found alive.
Injured survivors at an overstretched hospital lay on the floor near an orphaned two-month-old baby found in a storm drain.
Rainwater dripped onto the survivors from holes in the ceiling. "We need doctors, specialists, " said nurse Anputra, as the baby lay in a humidified crib at the tiny hospital in Pagai Utara.
One survivor, Sarifinus, 35, cradled his five-year-old son, Dimas, who screamed as medical staff tended to his broken arm.
The man said when the huge wave came he grabbed his two other young sons and ran towards the mountain. The wall of water tore both from his arms and sucked them away.
Sarifinus and his wife, Martina, who sat staring blankly in a corner, found Dimas alive after the waters receded.
Indonesia initially refused offers of foreign aid, but Australia said Jakarta had accepted about $US1 million ($1.02m) worth of assistance for both disasters.
Troops and warships have been sent to the region but more helicopters and boats are needed to ferry aid to isolated communities, some of which lack roads and wireless communications. Dave Jenkins of health agency Surfaid International, based in the Mentawais, said conditions were difficult. "Bad weather is forecast and a severely challenging situation has been made a lot worse."
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited the area yesterday, telling survivors the government was doing everything it could to help them.
Officials have deflected questions about why an expensive warning system - set up after the 2004 Asian tsunami killed almost 170,000 people on Sumatra and nearby islands - failed to alert people on the Mentawais.
The head of the Indonesian meteorological agency denied reports that vandalism to the early-warning buoys had prevented people in the tsunami area from receiving a warning to flee to higher ground.
"Yes, some of our sensors disappear because they are stolen, such as seismographs and solar cells," Sri Woro Harijono said. "But it is just one or three sensors out of 100. The system works fine."
The system was installed after the 2004 tsunami killed 226,000 people, 168,000 of them in Aceh.
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