Paradise lost: Island that escaped tsunami destroyed by quake

CANDLES flickered at the heads of about 20 corpses, wrapped in white sheets on the street outside the Santa Maria church in the devastated town of Gunung Sitoli on Nias, the Indonesian isle known as a surfers’ paradise.

The mainly Roman Catholic islanders escaped almost unscathed from the December 26 earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 126,000 in Indonesia’s Aceh province. But this time, they were not so lucky.

“It was stronger than the December 26 quake,” survivor Ebenezer said. “In one minute, everything was destroyed. No one had a chance to run.”