Tsunami leaves survivors 'bewildered'

A New Zealand Red Cross worker who last night reached Indonesia's tsunami-affected area said the mood was one of "bewilderment".

The death toll from Monday's tsunami, which was triggered by an earthquake off the coast of Indonesia's Java island, had reached 256 but was expected to rise.

Huge waves crashed into Pangandaran beach near Ciamis, 270km southeast of Jakarta.

Red Cross worker Phil Vine was deployed yesterday from Yogyakarta, where he was based, to the stricken area as part of an assessment team.

Mr Vine reached the Pangandaran area shortly after 5pm yesterday where he reported "extreme devastation". Resorts lining the beachfront area were heavily damaged. Hotels which were once filled with guests now played host to boats from the beach.

"If you can imagine 30-foot outriggers being picked up and thrown through hotel buildings, that is actually what has happened here," he said.

"People are walking around bewildered and in shock. They are getting hungry and thirsty," Mr Vine said.

Aid from the Indonesian Red Cross was getting through to the affected areas, thanks in part to the number of natural disasters Indonesia had suffered in the past few years.

"Sadly they [the Indonesian Red Cross] have a lot of experience in dealing with these things," he said.

"The 2004 tsunami definitely feeds into the psyche of the people here."

Red Cross spokeswoman Alexis Starkey said many aid workers and supplies were already in Indonesia because of the recent Yogyakarta earthquake, and the 2004 tsunami in which 230,000 people were killed or reported missing.

"The Indonesian Red Cross has built up a good supply of volunteers. The locals are quite resilient and have a lot of experience dealing with disasters."

She said it was too early to say how much aid the New Zealand Red Cross would provide, or whether they would send more people to the area.

A Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said no New Zealanders had been caught up in the tsunami.

The Ministry of Civil Defence Emergency Management said the tsunami was a reminder of the vulnerability of New Zealand's coasts: "New Zealanders may have only a few minutes' warning if an undersea earthquake within close proximity of the coastline generates a tsunami."