Adversity tends to force us to make tough choices. And such was the case of a 46-year-old father, Udin Ahok who had to choose between saving his wife or his mother and baby.
The Indonesian had just gone to sleep on Saturday evening when a wall of water smashed into his house in Way Muli village on the coast of Sumatra.
Panicked, he fought to reach his sleeping 70-year-old mother and one-year-old son but then he saw his wife about to drown in the swirling waters.
Ahok plucked his wife to safety hoping his mother would manage to escape. The duo survived the fury of a volcano-triggered tsunami that smashed into Indonesia's coast, killing more than 400 people who had no time to escape.
Later, Ahok's mother and baby were found dead under mountains of debris.
'I didn't have time to save my mother and son,' a weeping Ahok said.
'I regret it so much. I can only hope they've been given a place in God's hands.'
Even as survivors are being rescued and taken to shelter homes, authorities ask residents to avoid the coastal area. Indonesia's Meteorology, Geophysics and Climatology Agency asked people to stay at least 500 meters (1,640 feet) and up to 1 kilometer (less than a mile) from the coastline along the strait, which lies between the two main islands. Government workers were monitoring Anak Krakatoa's eruptions and high waves and heavy rain were possible Wednesday, said agency head Dwikorita Karnawati. "All these conditions could potentially cause landslides at the cliffs of the crater into the sea, and we fear that that could trigger a tsunami," she said.
