wild places | wild happenings | wild news
make a difference for our wild places

home | links | search the site
  all articles latest | past | articles by topics | search wildnews
wild news on wildsingapore
  PlanetArk 22 May 07
Asian Beaches Reopen After Winds Trigger Huge Waves

PlanetArk 21 May 07
Huge Waves Continue to Hit Indonesian Coastlines

Channel NewsAsia 20 May 07
Residents flee after waves batter Indonesia's coastline

Channel NewsAsia 18 May 07
High waves force hundreds to flee Indonesia coastline

JAKARTA - High waves have struck coastlines across Indonesia, forcing hundreds to be evacuated from their homes after water destroyed houses and fishing boats, reports said Friday.

On the resort island of Bali, tourists were warned to stay away from the main Kuta beach after waves started pounding the coastline late Thursday, the Detikcom news website said.

High water also hit the nearby picturesque Jimbaran beach, damaging stalls and fishing boats, ElShinta radio reported.

Houses in fishing villages along Java island's coastline have been damaged and some residents, fearful of another tsuanmi, have headed inland, local officials told Detikcom.

"I fled my house because I am afraid of a tsunami like the one in Aceh," said Munajad, a resident in Sukabumi in western Java. "There are 38 huts swept away by the waves that came in the morning. There's no missing people but some have been injured," he told ElShinta.

About 200 Sukabumi residents were seeking shelter in a local government building, an official said.

The waves have been generated by strong winds blowing across the Indian Ocean, the national meteorology office said.

A tsunami alert has not been issued for Indonesia, the nation worst hit by devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. No casualties have been reported.

In Caringin village, also in western Java, waves badly damaged a holiday resort and fishing huts, Detikcom reported. "Hundreds of houses were damaged after a high tide came. We are still investigating the exact amount of damage," an official said.

Several hundred people have been evacuated as a precaution from Trenggalek district in eastern Java after waves sunk fishing boats, local police said. Residents living up to three hundred metres from the coast had to be moved, an officer told Detikcom.

People living in Indonesia's second-city of Surabaya reported minor flooding in their homes after waves hit the area, Metro TV reported.

Waves also struck hundreds of kilometres further north on Sumatra island, with a high tide hitting Bengkulu, also damaging dozens of fishing boats. - AFP/ir

Channel NewsAsia 20 May 07
Residents flee after waves batter Indonesia's coastline

JAKARTA : More than a thousand people have fled inland along Indonesia's coastline after tidal waves destroyed houses and fishing boats this week, officials said Saturday.

Residents have taken refuge in schools and other government buildings after high waves pounded coastlines from northern Sumatra island to the southern tourist resort island of Bali, officials said.

"The number of people that fled their houses has reached 1,246 people," Setio Sutarto from the National Disaster Management Agency told AFP.

He said West Java and West Sumatra were the regions worst hit by the tidal waves, which started hitting the coast late Thursday. Eleven provinces have been affected, including Aceh, which was devastated by the 2004 Asian tsunami, the Kompas daily said.

Hundreds of homes have been badly damaged and others swept away in fishing villages dotting the coastlines, the newspaper said. Television pictures showed wooden homes flattened and residents searching through water-soaked debris for their belongings.

Fishermen have been advised against going out to sea in affected areas, Kompas said.

On the resort island of Bali, tourists and vendors have been warned to keep off the main beach of Kuta after waves pounded the coastline, destroying stalls, officials said. Surfers have also been told to keep out of the water in Bali, they said.

The popular restaurant strip on Bali's Jimbaran beach was shut down on Friday after waves pounded fishing huts and boats, the Jakarta Post said.

Metres-high waves, caused by monsoon winds on the Indian Ocean, are set to continue to smash the coastline for several more days, the national meteorology office told AFP.

"Our prediction shows that waves would be reduced tomorrow on Sumatra island but people along coastlines of West Java island must be careful of more possible high waves," said Sugarin from the office, in Jakarta.

A tsunami alert has not been issued for Indonesia, the nation worst hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. No casualties have been reported. - AFP/yy

PlanetArk 21 May 07
Huge Waves Continue to Hit Indonesian Coastlines

JAKARTA - Massive waves that have damaged hundreds of homes and displaced thousands of people pounded Indonesia's coastlines for a third day on Saturday, forcing fishermen to stay on land and keeping tourists from the beaches.

One person was killed by the huge waves that began hitting coasts across the sprawling archipelago on Thursday and dozens of fishing boats were destroyed by the rushing waters that rose as high as 7 metres (20 feet) in some areas.

Weather officials say the waves are a result of the accumulation of winds in one spot and are not linked with annual weather patterns.

The waves receded to 1.5-2 metres in some parts on Saturday, but weather officials still warned fishermen against sailing in the Java Sea and forbade people from surfing on the popular Kuta beach in the tourist island of Bali.

"Today they (the waves) have decreased relatively. Our forecast for tomorrow is below 1.5 metres," Kukuh Ribudiyanto, an official at the national meteorology and geophysics agency, told Reuters.

However, the waves could rise up to 3 metres in the Indian Ocean near the western part of Java, the country's most densely populated island, he said.

The crashing waves that have struck all the way from Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra, which was hit by a monster tsunami in December 2004, to the resort island of Bali have triggered panic among residents in some parts.

Among the worst hit was Sukabumi regency in West Java where more than 600 people have fled from their homes. Memories of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed some 170,000 people in Aceh alone are still fresh in the minds of many Indonesians.

PlanetArk 22 May 07
Asian Beaches Reopen After Winds Trigger Huge Waves

DENPASAR, Indonesia - Tourist beaches in Southeast Asia reopened on Monday after giant waves triggered by intense winds thousands of kilometres away crashed ashore last week, reviving memories of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

The waves, which were 7 metres (23 feet) high in some areas late last week, struck large parts of Indonesia, the Maldives, Thailand and Western Australia. There was no official warning about the freakish waves that killed at least one person, damaged hundreds of homes and displaced thousands of people across Indonesia. Homes and fishing boats were also damaged in Thailand and the Maldives.

Weather officials said the waves were the result of an accumulation of winds in one spot on the ocean, but were looking at why they were so intense.

Triwahyu Hadi, a meteorology expert at the Bandung Institute of Technology, said the phenomenon was likely caused by Kelvin waves, giant waves caused by a surge of irregular wind patterns in the Indian Ocean.

He said it could have easily been predicted because such waves commonly occurred around this time. "However, we didn't expect the waves to be of this size, that's why we need to analyse the other factors first before arriving at a conclusion."

The European Space Agency said the huge waves were generated by intense storm winds in the Southern Ocean on May 8. The waves originated south of Cape Town in South Africa and travelled northeast for nearly 4,000 km (2,500 miles) over three days before slamming into Reunion Island on May 12, said the ESA's Web site, (www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMAKIV681F_economy_0.html).

Using satellites, French researchers tracked the huge swell as it travelled northeast, hitting first Reunion, Madagascar, the Maldives and finally Indonesia. Initial forecasts were for waves only a couple of metres in height, said French researchers on the ESA Web site, but due to the large time period between swells, around 19 seconds, the intensity of the waves was much greater.

"Swells are still surprise factors, which can unfortunately be deadly," Bertrand Chapron of IFREMER, the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea, said on the ESA Web site.

WASHED AWAY

Australian surfing Web sites started monitoring the huge swell from early last week as it rolled out of the Southern Ocean, creating around three-metre swells in Madagascar and the Maldives, which flooded some low-lying islands.

Australia's big surf breaks around Margaret River in southwest Australia were pounded by waves up to 20 feet as the huge westerly swell hit the coast.

Huge waves later hit Bali, giving surfers adrenalin-fuelled rides, but washing away beachside restaurants and fishing boats.

"This month there has been an astronomically extreme phenomenon. The tidal waves were caused by a combination of several factors, including winds travelling at extreme speed in the Indian Ocean," said Widada Sulistya, head of Meteorological and Geophysical agency in Bali.

The crashing waves brought back painful memories of the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004, which killed about 170,000 people in the Indonesian province of Aceh alone.

Sukabumi regency in West Java was one of the areas worst hit last week, with more than 600 people fleeing their homes.

On Monday, foreign and local tourists returned to the sea on Bali's famous Kuta beach, while fishing boats also set out again.

In Thailand, strong winds and high tides generated a storm surge along the Andaman Sea coastline, with waves as high as 5 metres pounding Phuket beaches. "Some homes and fishing boats were damaged," Smith Dharmasaroja, head of Thailand's National Disaster Warning Centre, told Reuters. There were no reports of injuries.

In Bangkok, workers laid 400,000 sandbags in 14 flood-prone areas along the Chao Phraya river, which rose as much as 2 metres at the weekend due to high tides, the Thai News Agency said.

(Additional reporting by Michael Perry in Sydney, Darren Schuettler in Bangkok and Ahmad Pathoni and Adhityani Arga in Jakarta)
links
Related articles on wild shores of Singapore
about the site | email ria
  News articles are reproduced for non-profit educational purposes.
 

website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com