Indonesian tsunami and volcano tragedies leave trail of destruction in disaster-plagued country

Disaster seems to be everywhere this week in Indonesia. In a 24-hour span, the country was slammed by a tsunami that killed at least 272 people and an erupting volcano that has left up to 30 people dead. The twin tragedies have stretched thin the country's ability to rescue the more than 400 people believed missing since the deadly 10-foot wave swept through West Sumatra.

"We need to find the missing people as soon as possible. Some of them might have run away to the mountains, but many would have been swept away," Harmensyah, who heads the province's disaster management effort, told Agence France-Presse . He told the BBC that 4,000 families have been displaced.

A farmer on the coast of North Pagai island said his wife and three children were killed by the wave and that he stayed alive by clinging to a piece of wood. "About 10 minutes after the quake we heard a loud, thunderous sound," the man, identified as Borinte, told AFP. "We went outside and saw the wave coming. We tried to run away to higher ground but the wave was much quicker than us."

Food, shelter and medicine are finally starting to reach victims. The first images of the disaster show villages reduced to rubble, with homes torn to shreds. In 2004, a 9.3-magnitude quake launched the infamous tsunami that killed 168,000 people.

Mount Merapi is Indonesia's most volatile volcano. (AP) About 800 miles from this week's tsunami site, Mount Merapi spewed lava in central Java on Tuesday, filling the air with toxins and covering the ground in ash.

One of the dead was an elderly man found in his home kneeling, in mid-prayer, The Associated Press reported. Authorities are urging people to remain evacuated until the volcano settles down.

"It's a little calmer today," Surono, the chief of Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation, told The AP. "No hot clouds, no rumbling. But a lot of energy is pent up back there.

"There's no telling what's next." Indonesia, a massive cluster of islands, is no stranger to natural disasters because of its location on the Pacific Ocean's Ring of Fire. The nation endures thousands of earthquakes each year and has the largest number of active volcanoes.