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Indonesian children return to school after tsunami

Posted on: Monday, 24 July 2006, 03:25 CDT

By Crack Palinggi

PANGANDARAN, Indonesia (Reuters) - Indonesian children returned to school on Monday in an area of Java devastated by a tsunami, the latest sign of a slow resumption of normal life after the killer waves struck a week ago.

Elementary students in this fishing and beach resort, which suffered the brunt of the disaster, were encouraged to sing songs to relieve stress but also given a lesson on how to recognize a future tsunami.

"Birds behave weirdly, suddenly the sea recedes, there is a

salty smell, and a sound like a bomb or a plane," said five-year-old Wildan Pratama, when asked for signs of a tsunami.

"I would go to a higher site, hike up a mountain or onto a roof," he added, saying he had been calm when the tsunami struck on May 17 bringing rubbish-laden, filthy water right up to his house.

Thirty-nine students returned to the school, still only a small fraction of the 259 who normally attend.

"Many students were evacuated to outside Pangandaran. So they will study in another school," said Dudung, a teacher at the school.

"Children are being taught the signs (of a tsunami). Students are also singing songs to relieve their trauma."

FISHING VILLAGES

People displaced after last Monday's tsunami who fled to higher ground have been encouraged to return to their homes, if they were left intact, and some have started going back.

But some remain too scared, preferring to shelter in large military tents in the hills or stay with relatives.

Paul Armor, country director at the Catholic Relief Services, said he was particularly concerned about the impact of the tsunami on more remote small fishing communities in the area.

"I think what people have failed to recognize is that the fishing villages around this tourist area, are the ones that have been hit," Armor said by telephone, adding that his agency was focusing 90 percent of its aid efforts on three fishing villages.

The number killed by waves that brought death and destruction to a 300-km (185-mile) stretch of Java's south coast on July 17 was revised down to 635 from nearly 700, with 59 missing and about 45,000 displaced, health and disaster officials said.

The revised death toll was attributed to double counting in some districts.

On Sunday, a strong undersea earthquake struck off the coast of Sulawesi island, prompting jumpy local authorities to issue a tsunami warning, which was later withdrawn. There were no reports of deaths or damage.

Newspapers on Monday discussed calls for the media to take a bigger role in giving warnings of a potential tsunami.

Indonesian broadcaster MetroTV interrupted its programs to issue a tsunami warning after the quake in Sulawesi on Sunday.

The lack of warning ahead of last Monday's killer waves, despite regional efforts to set up an early alert system after the massive Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, has been driving a debate over the official response in the sprawling archipelago.

Indonesia's 17,000 islands sprawl along a belt of intense volcanic and seismic activity, part of what is called the "Pacific Ring of Fire." (Additional reporting by Diyan Jari in JAKARTA)

Source: REUTERS

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