Resort's destruction proves a macabre spectacle
Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Pangandaran, Ciamis
Wearing pale blue rubber gloves, a group of military personnel stood by a hole about 20 meters long, handing down corpses shrouded in white cloth to their colleagues.
"Where's number 67? Where's 59?" shouted the commander, walking around with a small notebook in his hand. "Remember, don't touch your face with the gloves!".
As a crane filled up the hole with earth, the officers stepped aside, tossed off the gloves and drank from coconuts they found washed up around the site.
For the second time, the officers dug a mass grave Thursday for 11 victims of Monday's tsunami. The day before, the number of buried was 25. The mass grave is located on a cleared field off Pangandaran's western shore.
This section of coast, the center of tourism for the area, was busy Thursday. Bulldozers cleared away debris after people sifted through it to take what they could. Workers from the state electricity company fixed downed power lines, as boats that survived the waves lined the beach and also street.
Curious onlookers turned out once again to look at the destruction. Perhaps some of them came to count their blessings at being spared the disaster, and were not just voyeurs feasting on the misfortune of others. But for the latter, a few sharply worded posters have been put on poles: "We are not here to be ogled, you devils".
A false alarm Wednesday had sent frightened people scurrying to higher ground, and fears of a second tsunami remain among jittery locals.
"I ran as quickly as I could yesterday when people shouted that there was another tsunami," said a military officer.
Fisherman Memed said a thief was responsible for the false alarm.
"There was a thief who stole a motorcycle. My son and several other people saw him and were ready to beat him up. But the thief's friend shouted, 'the waves are getting higher!' That was when people panicked and ran, and the sirens wailed."
He complained that looters and opportunists were descending on the town to take whatever they could, including fishing nets.
