Tsunami death toll rises to 550

The death toll from the Indonesian tsunami rose to nearly 550 today as the president vowed to install a nationwide system capable of warning coastal communities of killer waves by mid-2008.

“We want to expedite efforts to get infrastructure for the tsunami warning system,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said late yesterday. “I will work with parliament to get the budget.”

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake on Monday triggered towering waves that smashed into a 180-km stretch of Java’s southern coast, destroying scores of houses, restaurants and hotels. Cars, motorbikes and boats were left mangled amid fishing nets, furniture and other debris.

No warning was given to those on the coast.

Indonesia’s national disaster co-ordinating board said today that 547 people had been killed and 323 others were missing in the disaster. It said more than 50,000 had fled their homes, either because they were damaged or destroyed or out of fear of another tsunami.

Yudhoyono met three Swedish survivors of the disaster before flying to the worst-hit resort town of Pangandaran to visit some of the homeless and perform Friday prayers there.