Indonesia Quake Kills 54; Thousands Still Await Aid
Indonesia Quake Kills 54; Thousands Still Await Aid
The News
Thousands of people on Indonesia's Flores Island are still waiting for aid after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake killed at least 54 people, injured 135 and damaged more than 1,300 homes.
The quake struck East Nusa Tenggara province on Saturday, and the wait for relief stretched into Monday — the day Indonesia celebrated its 81st Independence Day.
Some 5,000 people have been forced into temporary shelters, according to the National Disaster Management Agency. Nearly 250 homes were destroyed on Flores alone.
Timeline
The magnitude 7.7 quake hits at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Residents flee in panic as tsunami warnings go out; the warnings are later lifted.
Rescue teams recover six more bodies, and the province's governor declares a 14-day state of emergency. Authorities report roads blocked and landslides triggered across the disaster zone.
Thousands camp outside collapsed homes under tarpaulin tents, sleeping in the open because of the risk of more aftershocks. Authorities have recorded at least 995 aftershocks, though only 46 were felt by residents.
Indonesia marks its 81st Independence Day. On Flores, residents spend the day mourning victims, searching for loved ones and waiting for aid in communities still cut off.
Reactions
Survivors in the hardest-hit area, Reo village in Manggarai regency, described a wait for basic supplies.
"My house is just rubble now," said Rasyid Jafar, a clothing trader in Reo. "We need food, medicine and clean water urgently."
Another Reo villager, Mariana Tewu, said relief that has arrived is not enough to cook with: "We have nothing left ... Why isn't there a public kitchen?"
An Associated Press photojournalist reported widespread devastation across the island — fallen trees blocking roads, giant boulders hurled downslope by landslides, homes shattered, and parked cars crushed by collapsing buildings.
What's Next
More than 3,500 military and police personnel have been deployed across the disaster zone, and 275 tons of aid have been sent, though logistical problems have slowed deliveries to some hard-hit communities.
The 14-day state of emergency declared Sunday keeps the provincial response in place while crews clear blocked roads and reach cut-off villages. Aftershocks continue, keeping residents out of damaged houses.
More
For many on Flores, the disaster revived memories of the 1992 earthquake and tsunami that struck the island and killed about 2,500 people.
Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," a horseshoe-shaped arc of seismic faults and volcanoes. A magnitude 7.5 quake triggered a tsunami on Sulawesi in 2018 that killed more than 4,400 people, and the magnitude 9.1 quake off Sumatra in 2004 unleashed a tsunami that killed about 230,000 people in a dozen countries, nearly 170,000 of them in Aceh province.
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