Png Tidal Wave Terror Toll: 3000

Illawarra Mercury

Tuesday July 21, 1998

VANIMO.- Efforts to save injured survivors of the tidal waves which devastated northern Papua New Guinea intensified yesterday as officials feared the death toll could rise to at least 3000.

John Tekwie, governor of the West Sepik province hit by the three waves late on Friday, said the number of survivors who fled to the bush in fear of another wave appeared fewer than first thought.

``I'm looking at a very conservative figure of 3000 people dead, based on the number of bodies recovered so far and the number of people seen still hiding in the jungle," Mr Tekwie said.

``I've had a look and all there is is bodies.

``The stench of the dead is overpowering."

Although it had been thought thousands had taken refuge in the high ground, Mr Tekwie believed there were only 500 or less still hiding in the bush.

Mr Tekwie is helping to co-ordinate the relief operation in the provincial centre of Vanimo, close to the remains of seven villages obliterated by the tsunami which struck with devastating force after dark on Friday.

Waves of up to 10m, triggered by two major earthquakes, crashed into a 30km stretch of coast, washing the villages into the Sissano lagoon and leaving an estimated 6000 people homeless.

As soldiers and volunteers continued yesterday to drag bloated bodies from the lagoon, the dead were being buried without coffins where they lay because of the intense heat and because the dismembered remains were being eaten by animals. But the waterways remain choked with the dead.

Four helicopters worked frantically yesterday to ferry the injured still stranded near their destroyed villages.

``It's great that the world knows what has happened," Mr Tekwie said. ``It's an horrific catastrophe."

Three hospitals in the area were overwhelmed with injured yesterday but doctors said they were managing to cope.

Many of the injured, lying under tarpaulins and on hospital floors, told horrific tales of how they survived the black wall of water which engulfed them.

One distraught father, Bonney Sule, said he had been standing outside his house in the village of Arok with his son and pregnant wife when they heard a rumbling they first thought was a plane.

``The sea came and we didn't know what it was," he said. ``Some people went to the beach to see and they were caught up in the wave. Those who went to the sea all died."

Mr Sule said he was swept into the lagoon behind his village which was destroyed. He survived by clutching a floating log and was able to save his three-year-old son but his wife was swept away. ``I thought I would die, but I prayed to God and he saved my life. My wife was lost."