No warning came ahead of deadly Indonesian tsunami, system had been ‘vandalized’

Survivors of the tsunami that followed the magnitude 7.7 earthquake earlier this week off the Indonesian island of Sumatra did not receive any notification of the coming wall of water, and officials say the tsunami warning system had been vandalized, rendering it useless.

Hundreds of people died and many more are missing after a 10ft high wave leveled the Mentawai islands, destroying several villages. The Indonesian Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology’s Ridwan Jamaluddin told the BBC that two coastal buoys near the Mentawai islands had been tampered with and were not working properly when the tsunami struck:

“We don’t say they are broken down but they were vandalised and the equipment is very expensive. It cost us five billion rupiah each (£353,000; $560,000).

A second official, speaking on behalf of the Indonesian Climatology Agency, said the buoys were instrumental in triggering the warning system to notify locals:

“To predict a tsunami, we need the data from the buoy and the tide gauge, which is located near the beach. The buoy is more important because it is on the sea, so it will record the wave much quicker that the tide gauge,” said the official, named Fauzi.

The early warning system has been in place for two years.