Weather hampers efforts to inspect Indonesia tsunami volcano

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Bad weather and a massive ash column hampered efforts to assess whether Indonesia’s Anak Krakatau volcano island could trigger another deadly tsunami as authorities said Friday the search for victims in the worst-affected province will continue into January.

Indonesia’s disaster agency said that 426 people died in the Sunda Strait tsunami that struck Sumatra and Java without warning on Dec. 22. That was slightly lower than previously announced due to some victims being recorded twice. It said 23 are missing and more than 40,000 displaced.

High seas, clouds and constant eruptions have hindered attempts to visually inspect Anak Krakatau, the offspring of the infamous Krakatau volcano whose eruption in 1883 caused a period of global cooling. A large part of the volcano collapsed following the eruption, triggering the tsunami.

Authorities have warned Sunda Strait residents to stay a mile away from the coastline, citing the potential for another tsunami.

Gegar Prasetya, co-founder of the Tsunami Research Center Indonesia, said the severity of another potential tsunami could be less since satellite radar shows the volcano is now much smaller.

The tsunami hit more than 186 miles of coastline with waves of about 6 1/2 feet or higher.

“According to the theory and my past research, the severity of the potential tsunami is reduced significantly. This morning we tried to take an aerial photo from the plane to confirm the satellite image but failed due to cloud cover,” Prasetya said.