Search for tsunami victims continues as death toll tops 400

Indonesian rescuers onTuesday used drones and sniffer dogs to search for survivorsalong the devastated west coast of Java hit by a tsunami thatkilled at least 429 people, warning more victims are expected tobe uncovered as the search expands.

Thick ash clouds continued to spew from Anak Krakatau, avolcanic island where a crater collapse at high tide on Saturday, sent waves smashing into coastal areas on both sides of theSunda Strait between the islands of Sumatra and Java.

At least 154 people remain missing. More than 1,400 peoplewere injured, and thousands of residents had to move to higherground, with a high-tide warning extended to Wednesday.

Rescuers used heavy machinery, sniffer dogsand specialcameras to detect and dig bodies out of mud and wreckage along a100-kilometrestretch of Java's west coast, and officials saidthe search area would be expanded further south.

"There are several locations that we previously thought werenot affected," said Yusuf Latif, spokesperson for the nationalsearch-and-rescue agency.

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Raw footage of areas hit by tsunami along Carita Beach.

"But now we are reaching more remote areas ... and, in fact, there are many victims there," he added.

The vast archipelago, which sits on the Pacific "Ring ofFire," has suffered its worst annual death toll from disasters in more than a decade.

Earthquakes flattened parts of the island of Lombok in Julyand August, and a double quake-and-tsunami killed more than2,000 people on a remote part of Sulawesi island in September.

It took just 24 minutes after the landslide for waves to hitland, and there was no early warning for those living on the coast.

Temporary shelters

Authorities have warned of further high waves and advisedresidents to stay away from the shoreline.

"Since Anak Krakatau has been actively erupting for the pastseveral months, additional tsunamis cannot be excluded," saidProf. Hermann Fritz, from the Georgia Institute of Technologyin the U.S.

Rescue efforts were hampered by heavy rainfall and lowvisibility. Military and volunteer teams used drones to assess the extent of the damage along the coast.

Food, water, blanketsand medical aid is trickling intoremote areas via inland roads that are choked with traffic.

Thousands of people are staying in tents and temporaryshelters like mosques or schools, with dozens sleeping on the floor and using public facilities. Many remained traumatized bythe disaster.

"We can't sleep at night. And if we get to sleep, a car goespast with sirens and we wake up again, on edge," said Enah, a29-year-old woman who managed to survive with her family.

A local official in the city of Labuan, Atmadja Suhara, saidhe was helping to care for 4,000 people who have been displaced, many of whom had beenleft homeless.

"Everybody is still in a state of panic," he said. "We oftenhave disasters, but not as bad as this.

"God willing," he said, "we will rebuild."

Destruction was visible along much of the coastline wherewaves of up to two metres crushed vehicles, felled trees, lifted chunks of metal and wooden beams and household items anddeposited them on roads and rice fields.

Out in the strait, Anak Krakatau, or "Child of Krakatoa,"wasstill erupting and authorities imposed a two-kilometre exclusion zonearound it.

The meteorology agency said that an area of about 64hectares, or about 90 soccer pitches, of thevolcanic island had collapsed into the sea.

In 1883, the volcano, then known as Krakatoa, erupted in oneof the biggest blasts in recorded history, killing more than 36,000 people in a series of tsunamis, and lowering the globalsurface temperature by 1 Cwith its ash. AnakKrakatau is the island that emerged from the area in 1927, andhas been growing ever since.

President Joko Widodo, who is running for re-election inApril, told disaster agencies to install early warning systems, but experts said that, unlike tsunami caused by earthquakes,little could have been done in time to alert people that waves were coming in this instance.

The timing of the disaster over the Christmas season evokedmemories of the Indian Ocean tsunami triggered by an earthquakeon Dec. 26, 2004, which killed 226,000 people in 14 countries,including more than 120,000 in Indonesia.