Indonesia pledged to build a nationwide tsunami alert system as soldiers pulled bodies from ravaged beaches, homes and hotels Tuesday. Parents searched tearfully for their children and the death toll hit at least 341, with nearly 230 people missing.Bodies covered in white sheets piled up at makeshift morgues, while others lay beneath the blazing sun in the tourist resort of Pangandaran, a 6-month-old baby among them. The search for survivors continued Tuesday, with parents among the last to give up. "The water was too strong," said Irah as she dug through a pile of rubble with her bare hands, close to the spot where she last saw her 6-year-old son. "Oh God. Eki, where are you?"
The magnitude 7.7 undersea quake on Monday triggered walls of water more than six feet high that crashed into a 110-mile stretch of beach on Java island, an area spared by the devastating 2004 Asian tsunami. The waves destroyed houses, restaurants and hotels and tossed boats, cars and motorbikes far inland. The death toll rose Tuesday to at least 341, according to Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie, and, with 229 more missing, the number was expected to climb. "We are still finding many bodies. Many are stuck in the ruins of the houses," said police chief Syamsuddin Janieb.