Indonesian Tsunami Death Toll Rises
In what was only classed as a minor Tsunami, the death toll has risen to over 400 people – which we can hardly call a ‘minor’ number.
The underwater earth shake registered a magnitude-7.7 which hit the panic button for officials last Friday, and with the death toll rising and the number of lost people not falling, fears are that the amount of survivors from the missing list will be extremely low.
It’s incredible to think that the figures published today from the National Disaster Organisation claim that nearly 13,000 people were evacuated when the disaster happened, 270 people had serious injuries and only 140 people had minor injuries – thank you to the hard work of those who helped immediately after the wave came tumbling in.
If you look back through statistic, you will see the on 26th December 2004, a 9.1 magnitude earthquake struck off the Norther side of Sumatra which killed over 225,000 people spread over 14 countries. The total count for that tsunami ended up as over 150,000 dies in over 14 countries.
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho who works for the Indonesian National Board of Disaster Management said: ‘It’s been difficult to protect Indonesia’s small islands with a tsunami warning system, but most of them will be covered by February 2011.’
Local and state media cited a message from the governer of Western Sumatra stating that: ‘Mondays Tsunami had taken out or dmaged 426 homes, and that 6 out of 27 villages had been flattened on the Mentawai Islands.
The official estimation of funding needed to rebuild these areas has been estimated in the $100,000,000.00 – which may start to encourage some of the richer countries to place some finances with them in hope it starts to get things back together for the Indonesian families who now have no homes what so ever.
The European Commission has already sent in funds totalling $2.1 million to help the people hardest hit.
