Indonesian tsunami death toll hits 429 with 128 missing and thousands homeless while torrential rain hampers rescue efforts
429 people confirmed dead, 128 still missing and 16,000 displaced after tsunami hit Indonesia on Saturday
Searches are continuing but officials admit that it is unlikely anyone else will be found alive amid the rubble
Torrential rain is hampering search efforts and hindering ambulances which are trying to remove dead bodies
Christians in the majority-Muslim country held muted Christmas eve celebrations amid the tragedy
By CHRIS PLEASANCE
DAILYMAIL.COM
25 December 2018
The death toll from the Indonesian tsunami rose to 429 overnight on Monday as 128 people remained missing following the disaster.
Search and rescue efforts will continue until Sunday, police said, but officials admitted there was little chance of finding anyone else alive.
Efforts will now turn to providing medical aid for the 1,400 injured by the tidal wave triggered by an eruption at the ‘Child of Krakatoa’ volcano on Saturday, and finding shelter for the 16,000 whose homes were destroyed.
But torrential rain was hampering those efforts on Christmas Day, making searches difficult and hindering ambulances brought in to take dead bodies out of the disaster zone.
Pastor Markus Taekz said Tuesday his Rahmat Pentecostal Church in the hard-hit area of Carita did not celebrate with joyous songs this year.
Instead, he said only about 100 people showed up for the Christmas Eve service, usually attended by double that number. Many congregation members had already left the area for the capital, Jakarta, or other locations away from the impact zone.
“This is an unusual situation because we have a very bad disaster that killed hundreds of our sisters and brothers in Banten,” he said, referring to the Javanese province. “So our celebration is full of grief.”
Church leaders called on Christians across Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, to pray for victims of the tsunami.
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for Indonesia Disaster Mitigation Agency, said there was an urgent need for heavy equipment in remote Sumur subdistrict, a hard-to-reach area near Ujung Kulon National Park that experienced heavy damage.
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