Indonesian Tsunami, Volcano Deaths Top 375

(Oct. 28) -- Indonesian officials say the deadly combination of an earthquake-stirred tsunami and volcanic eruption have killed more than 375 people, as bodies wash ashore on white sand beaches in haunting scenes reminiscent of the December 2004 Asian catastrophe.

Most of the dead are in western Indonesia, where a tidal wave swamped the Mentawai Islands, near the epicenter of the 7.8-magnitude quake that hit Monday. Aid workers are scrambling to charter boats for a 10-hour trip to the remote islands, shuttling tarps, blankets, clean water -- and body bags -- with them.

"Reports of villages flattened are coming from there," an official with the West Sumatra disaster management agency told CNN. Witnesses reported seeing waves 20 feet high.

The official death toll from the tsunami reached 343 today, disaster management official Ferry Faisal told reporters, according to Australia's Herald Sun newspaper. Some 338 people are missing, he said.

That's in addition to the 33 people killed less than 24 hours later, when a volcano erupted on the other side of the tropical island chain, which straddles one of the world's most volatile seismic rifts. In central Java, the mighty Mount Merapi -- which means "mountain of fire" -- erupted three times on Tuesday, shooting superheated ash across farming villages in its foothills.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is meeting today with survivors from both disasters.

Seismologists were able to warn Merapi's neighbors, and more than 45,000 people managed to evacuate in time. Bloomberg News reported.

But a multimillion-dollar tsunami warning system installed after the 2004 disaster failed. A sophisticated network of alarm buoys that's supposed to signal changes in wave and sea levels had reportedly been vandalized and didn't work properly.

"About 10 minutes after the quake, we heard a loud, thunderous sound. We went outside and saw the wave coming," a 32-year-old survivor told the Herald Sun. "We tried to run away to higher ground, but the wave was much quicker than us."

It took search and rescue teams nearly two days to reach the islands because of stormy seas and rain. When they finally arrived, they found ghastly scenes -- swollen corpses strewn across beaches and roads, and houses washed away.

"Not even the foundations of houses are standing. All of them are gone," a local rescue official who goes by the single name Hermansyah told The Associated Press. "There must have been many people swept away to the Indian Ocean."

On Dec. 26, 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck off northern Sumatra, stirring a tsunami that killed more than 225,000 people in 14 countries. More than half of those killed were in Indonesia.