NEWS-"Papua tidal wave kills 70, hundreds feared dead" Date: 98-07-18 09:32:33 EDT From: hblonde1@tampabay.rr.com (New Millennium) July 18 8:52 AM EDT Papua tidal wave kills 70, hundreds feared dead CANBERRA (Reuters) - A massive tidal wave powered by an earthquake swept away villages in Papua New Guinea with a confirmed death toll of least 70 and disaster officials said on Saturday hundreds of children and adults were feared dead. One village on a spit of land was wiped away leaving only "clean sand," according to a local mission priest, and a resident said the wave swept another village away like a broom. Rescuers used a helicopter and four speedboats to ferry the injured to the hospital in Aitape but the search for survivors and bodies was suspended for the night late Saturday apart from foot patrols. The local airstrip was reopened after being closed when the tidal wave struck late Friday, but there was still no road access to the devastated region on Guinea's northwest coast. Three more helicopters were expected to arrive Sunday when PNG Prime Minister Bill Skate was due to visit the region. Colin Travertz, of the PNG National Disaster Center, told CNN at least 70 people were confirmed dead after 10 villages were completely destroyed. Papua New Guinea lies across the Torres Strait from Queensland, Australia. Father Austen, a Catholic priest in Aitape who runs the area mission health services, told Reuters he was expecting 300 dead while another disaster relief official told Australian Broadcasting Corp television the toll could be closer to 1,000. Rescuers worried that people had fled their villages to the bush taking injured people with them who might die from lack of treatment if not found quickly. Helicopter pilot Merv Hastie told Reuters he had never seen such destruction and an outsider would not know that villages had stood in some places. "There's a few places where there were permanent buildings -- there's a concrete slab left. We've seen corrugated iron 10 meters (30 feet) up trees. A lot of the palm trees or coconut trees are just ripped out completely." Austen said three huge waves had swept in shortly after 7 p.m. (0900 GMT), the largest estimated at between seven and 10 meters (20 and 30 feet) high. The waves struck a stretch of beach about 30 km (20 mile) long, from Aitape west to Sissano village in West Sepik province, Austen said. The waves were powered by an earthquake measuring seven on the Richter scale centered on the Pacific Ocean seabed close to Aitape, Australian seismologists said. Arop, with 1,800 people and located on a spit of land Austen estimated to be about 100 meters (yards) wide and one kilometre (1,000 yards) long, was wiped out. "There is nothing left of that place except clean sand," Austen said. "In the main section in Arop where the (medical) team landed there were no living persons at all, only bodies and debris," he said. Doctors who visited the site estimated about 100 bodies were floating in the lagoon or scattered around it. The houses in the low-lying villages were mainly made of bush materials like palm fronds. Some did have iron roofs, and the structures were quite sturdy, evidenced by the fact that they survived the earthquake, Austen said. Another Catholic priest, Augustine Kulmana, told Reuters that three villages housing 7,500 people and a Catholic mission had all been destroyed. "The tidal wave hit without any warning and wiped out three villages and a mission station," he said, adding the wave had left floods 10 meters (30 feet) deep in places. Rob Parer, a businessman who lives just outside Aitape, told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio that a lot of people had lived along the beach where the waves struck. "All the houses of theirs along the beach, I'd say 80 or 90 percent, have been wiped out by the sound of it," Parer said. Austen said his mission had shut down its health services just three hours before the waves struck after a dispute over funding with the provincial health authority. "So yesterday at 4 p.m. we closed, and of course, 7.30 p.m. disaster struck, so we've opened up the mission hospital here," he said. By nightfall, the hospital was full. Most of the injuries being treated were cuts and broken bones from people being thrown around, he said. Resources were short and the key priorities were shelter, food and clean water. "They have no food. Thirst is a problem, they have been crying out for water," Austen said.