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Heavy storm sinks passenger ferry in central Indonesian waters, 250 feared dead
Monday, January 12, 2009 | No comments posted.
PAREPARE, Indonesia (AP) — Huge waves and driving rain hindered rescuers today as they searched for about 250 people missing and feared dead after a ferry packed with passengers and cargo capsized in a cyclone off Indonesia’s Sulawesi island.
Many passengers were sleeping when the 700-ton (635-metric ton) Teratai Prima was struck by tropical cyclone Charlotte before dawn Sunday, officials and witnesses said. It sank about 30 miles (50 kilometers) off the coast of western Sulawesi.
“People were screaming, ‘Help, help!”’ said survivor Sampara Daeng Gassing, 35, who clung to a tire for two hours in the pounding storm but lost his 9-year-old son and father-in-law. He was one of 22 rescued.
“I lost hold of my son and my father-in-law when a big wave hit me,” Gassing said, weeping.
The ferry was slammed by 13-foot-high (4-meter-high) waves, said Gassing, who arrived today with other survivors in the port of Parepare — where the ferry journey had started. He said he awoke about 10 minutes before it went down. The boat had been traveling to Samarinda on the Indonesian half of Borneo island.
Many passengers were sleeping when the 700-ton (635-metric ton) Teratai Prima was struck by tropical cyclone Charlotte before dawn Sunday, officials and witnesses said. It sank about 30 miles (50 kilometers) off the coast of western Sulawesi.
“People were screaming, ‘Help, help!”’ said survivor Sampara Daeng Gassing, 35, who clung to a tire for two hours in the pounding storm but lost his 9-year-old son and father-in-law. He was one of 22 rescued.
“I lost hold of my son and my father-in-law when a big wave hit me,” Gassing said, weeping.
The ferry was slammed by 13-foot-high (4-meter-high) waves, said Gassing, who arrived today with other survivors in the port of Parepare — where the ferry journey had started. He said he awoke about 10 minutes before it went down. The boat had been traveling to Samarinda on the Indonesian half of Borneo island.
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