Quakes Hit Indonesia, Raising Fears of Tsunami
Date: 14-Sep-07
Country: INDONESIA
Author: Ahmad Pathoni
A seismologist said the region was lucky to have escaped a
tsunami similar to the one that killed more than 280,000 people
in 2004.
"There was a tsunami created by the earthquake, it just
travelled in a southwest direction away from land," said Mike
Turnbull at Central Queensland University.
The threat lingered. Indonesia's meteorology agency issued
the latest in a series of tsunami warnings late on Thursday
after another strong earthquake struck Sumatra. It lifted the
warning after a few hours.
The damage from the initial quake was "relatively less" than
feared, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters on
Thursday.
"However, we still have to do a thorough assessment. People
are better at responding to disasters than in previous years."
Wednesday's 8.4 magnitude quake -- which took place on the
eve of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, and was felt in
neighbouring Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand -- cut
communications and sparked panic.
That quake and more than 20 further tremors ranging in
intensity from 4.9 to 7.8 repeatedly set off tsunami warnings in
Indian Ocean countries. But there were no reports of surges
hitting coastlines. The 2004 tsunami was caused by a quake of
more than 9 magnitude.
"We are grateful for the fact that the siuation wasn't as
bad as we initially thought it would be," said Muhammad Syamlan,
vice governor of Bengkulu province, whose capital Bengkulu was
close to the epicentre of the quake.
A Reuters photographer in Bengkulu's provincial capital said
the situation appeared calm, with shops re-opening and people
milling around. The province, one of Indonesia's key
coffee-growing regions, has a population of about 1.57 million.
LIVING IN FEAR
But roads in the north of the province were lined with tents
as residents did not want to return to their damaged homes,
fearing more tremors. People huddled by fires outdoors to keep
warm in drizzling rain.
"When the first quake struck, we ran out of our house. Then
we returned to the house to sleep but another big quake hit, so
we ran out again. Since then we have been afraid," said Erfan
Riyanto, a driver.
Rustam Pakaya, head of the Indonesian health ministry's
crisis centre in Jakarta, said 10 people had been killed and 51
injured across the region.
"The North Bengkulu area has been identified as the worst
hit, with half the area destroyed," he said.
Nearly 800 houses collapsed and many more were damaged in
the area, but the extent of the destruction was not fully known
because of the difficulty of reaching or contacting some areas.
The mayor of Padang, the capital of West Sumatra, told
Reuters many people were trapped under collapsed buildings.
Indonesia suffers frequent quakes, as it lies on an active
seismic belt on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire".
(Additional reporting by Harry Suhartono, Adhityani Arga, and
Telly Nathalia in Jakarta, John Nedi in Padang, Beawiharta in
Bengkulu and Michael Perry in Sydney)