Glitches lower tsunami death count
Rangga D. Fadillah, The Jakarta Post, Mentawai Islands, West Sumatra | Tue, 11/02/2010 9:34 AM
Initial estimates of the Mentawai Islands tsunami’ death doll will be lowered due to data processing errors, a disaster official said Monday.
"Our data processing system crashed the other day. We can’t ensure the validity of the data," Daulat Sababalat, a Sikakap disaster relief center official, said on Monday
The Disaster Mitigation Center at the district office reported Saturday that the tsunami had claimed 449 lives and left 96 people missing.
On Sunday afternoon, the center revised its estimate, saying that the death toll "only" reached 426 and 75 people were missing.
"We have called the heads of all tsunami-affected hamlets to meet with the Mentawai Islands Regent. We want to recount the number of victims and other casualties," he added.
