600 Killed as Tsunami Tears Into New Guinea

At least 600 people were killed and hundreds are missing after a 23-foot-high wall of water crashed into the northern coast of Papua New Guinea, sweeping away several villages, disaster officials said today.

Hundreds were missing and thousands were without food and shelter after the wave, triggered by a magnitude 7 earthquake about 12 miles offshore hit the southwest Pacific island nation Friday night, the National Disaster Center said.

“The latest death toll for the district is 599,” said Dickson Dalle, disaster coordinator for West Sepik province. “But the figure may increase.”

Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio quoted Australian army officials today as saying the death toll could rise as high as 2,000, but that figure could not be confirmed by the government.

The huge wave, called a tsunami because it was caused by an earthquake, struck west of the town of Aitape in the West Sepik province, hitting at least four villages--Sissano, Warapu, Arop and Malol--about 530 miles northwest of Port Moresby, disaster officials said.

One village was wiped away, leaving only “clean sand,” a local priest said.

Bodies and debris still littered the Sissano lagoon, which lies behind the narrow spit of land from which several villages were swept away Friday night.

The area is spotted with villages consisting of homes built of jungle materials.

The Papua New Guinea Defense Force was on standby today.

“At Warapu, there is no house standing--it’s a village of 1,800 people,” Austen Crapp, a relief organizer, told ABC radio. “Arop, again, is 1,800 to 2,000 people--there’s nothing standing there.”

A helicopter pilot who landed in Aitape on Saturday reported seeing bodies floating among debris in a lagoon, Crapp said.

Australia said it will provide transport for relief supplies and a mobile hospital to Papua New Guinea.

Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said a Royal Australian Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft now in Papua New Guinea on training exercises will be diverted to deliver supplies.

Queen Elizabeth II sent a message to Papua New Guinea, which is a member of the British Commonwealth, expressing her shock and sorrow at the deaths.

“She said she was shocked at the tidal wave, and that her thoughts were with the families of the bereaved and injured,” a Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said.

Tsunami is a Japanese word that translates as “harbor wave.” The term “tidal wave” is inaccurate because tides have nothing to do with a tsunami’s formation, and “seismic wave” also may be misleading because non-seismic events such as landslides and meteorites can trigger tsunamis.

Over the last century, there has been an average of one damaging tsunami per year in the Pacific Ocean basin, with a 100-year toll of about 70,000 people. In just three years, from 1992 to 1994, half a dozen tsunamis over 15 feet tall killed more than 2,300 people.

Tsunamis can be generated by earthquakes that involve a sudden rising or lowering of part of the ocean floor. In the deep ocean, tsunamis are imperceptible to humans, but as they reach shallower depths near shore, they can rise several yards--and some can reach 100 feet. They can inundate areas hundreds of yards past the normal high-water mark, stripping out soil and crushing structures.

Dangerous tsunamis have struck several times in Hawaii and at other Pacific points in the postwar period. Often, the alignment of land in relation to the movement of the tsunami is important in determining how severely it strikes at a given point.

For instance, the most deadly tsunami to strike a California city in modern times followed the Alaskan earthquake of March 27, 1964. Twelve-foot waves that hit Crescent City several hours later killed 10 people, injured 35 and destroyed 150 buildings.

The tsunamis leapfrogged along the Pacific coast, causing tidal surges at Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. But other areas along the California coast were scarcely affected.

Most of the 132 people killed in Alaska’s 1964 Good Friday earthquake were victims of tsunamis.

In Papua New Guinea, extra aid and search vehicles were expected to arrive through today, including an Australian Defense Force medical team and mobile hospital.

Papua New Guinea, with a population of 4 million, is largely dependent on agriculture and mining. The capital, Port Moresby, is about 375 miles east of Australia’s northeast tip.

Papua New Guinea lies across the Torres Strait from Queensland, Australia.

*

Times staff writers John L. Mitchell and Kenneth Reich contributed to this report.