Baby Found in Trees Days after Indonesia Tsunami

An official says an 18-month-old baby has been found alive in a clump of trees days after the devastating tsunami that killed hundreds of people.

Relief coordinator Hermansyah says the little boy is recovering in a health center. He says a 10-year-old child discovered the baby in a clump of trees on Pagai Selatan island on Wednesday. Both his parents are dead.

The discovery is one of the few bright spots in the tsunami that flattened villages and displaced tens of thousands of people when it hit Monday.

Residents of the Mentawai chain of islands dug graves and gathered in makeshift shelters Thursday. Officials said they fear that hundreds of missing people were swept out to sea and will never be found.

Hundreds Killed in Indonesia Disasters

Elsewhere in Indonesia, the volcano that killed 33 people earlier this week began erupting again, though there were no reports of new injuries or damage. Mourners held a mass burial Thursday during a lull in Mount Merapi's rumblings.

Photos: Indonesia Volcano Erupts

The twin catastrophes struck within 24 hours in different corners of the seismically charged region, severely testing the nation's emergency response network.

Islanders dug graves and slung up tarps to sleep under in one of the hardest-hit areas, where a 10-foot (three-meter) wave had swept houses off their foundations and deposited the shattered remains in the jungle. Many residents who fled to the hills were refusing to return home for fear the sea might lash out again.

Officials say a multimillion-dollar warning system installed after a monster 2004 quake and tsunami broke down one month ago because it was not being properly maintained. A German official at the project disputed that, saying the system was working but the quake's epicenter was too close to the Mentawai islands for residents to get the warning before the killer wave hit.

Search and rescue teams - kept away for days by stormy seas and bad weather - found roads and beaches with swollen corpses lying on them, according to Harmensyah, head of the West Sumatra provincial disaster management center.

Some wore face masks as they wrapped corpses in black body bags on Pagai Utara, one of the four main islands in the Mentawai chain located between Sumatra and the Indian Ocean.