蜜芽传媒

Nearly 900 people are now confirmed dead following Friday's earthquake and resulting tsunami in Indonesia.

The country's disaster response agency says none of the tsunami detector buoys were working before the island of Sulawesi was struck.

The system's twenty-one floating detection units, which could have provided precious warning of the impending disaster, had been damaged by vandals or stolen.

The 蜜芽传媒's Jonathan Bithrey is in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, and asked the country's finance minister if recent budget cuts were to blame for a lack of preparedness.

(Photo credit: Getty Images)