Sunday, July 29, 2018

Strong 6.4 Quake Kills 14, Injured 162, Thousands Of Homes Damaged On Indonesia Island




Strong quake kills 14, injures scores, on Indonesia holiday island



A powerful earthquake which struck the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok on Sunday killed at least 14 people, injured scores and damaged thousands of homes, officials said.
Five children were among those killed by the shallow 6.4-magnitude early-morning quake, which sent people running outside in panic and triggered landslides on popular mountain hiking routes.
Scores of aftershocks sparked fear among survivors. More than 120 were recorded, the biggest with a magnitude of 5.7, Indonesia's meteorology agency said.
Local officials have declared a three-day state of emergency. President Joko Widodo is due to visit the island Monday morning, his spokesman said.
"Based on reports, 14 people died, 162 were injured and thousands of homes were damaged," Indonesian disaster mitigation agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a statement, adding that five of the dead were children.
One Malaysian was killed and six injured, the Malaysian foreign ministry said.
"All of them were at the foot of Mount Rinjani when the incident happened," it said, referencing the spectacular volcano that dominates the island.
The 30-year-old victim was inside a restroom when the entire building collapsed and crushed her, the New Straits Times quoted another Malaysian climber, Khairul Azim, as saying.

Khairul said his own group was unable to leave the Sembalun area because many roads including the main one had been damaged.
The constant aftershocks sparked terrified shouts among scores of people made homeless in the eastern village of Sembalun in the district of the same name, an AFP reporter said.
Some 200 people from 35 families whose house were damaged or destroyed had pitched tents there. The roof of a health clinic had collapsed and its walls had cracked.
"People are traumatised and too scared to return home for fear the aftershocks could destroy their homes completely," the reporter said.
"Everytime there is an aftershock they cry out in fear and tremors can still be felt constantly."
Evacuees told AFP they badly needed blankets and instant food because there was no time to bring anything when they fled their homes.
Popular trekking trails on Mount Rinjani were closed because of landslides, according to the disaster agency.
One local trek organiser described how rocks rained down on two Spanish hikers and their guide as they were caught on a mountain trail.

The epicentre of the earthquake struck 50 km (30 miles) northeast of Lombok's main city Mataram, the United States Geological Survey said, far from the main tourist spots on the south and west of the island.
USGS said two of the aftershocks measured more than 5-magnitude.
The jolt was felt some 100 km (60 miles) away in the bustling holiday island of Bali, although there were no immediate reports of damage there.








The Pacific island nation of Vanuatu has imposed a state of emergency and urged thousands of people to evacuate after a volcano on the island Ambae erupted, sending ash so thick skywards that the sun was blocked. Ash fall was so thick that emergency responders told CNN that it was nearly impossible to get to affected areas. “We tried to travel to the south today but we have to turn back, because trees are falling, visibility is very very poor, we cannot see far more than 2 meters,” Augustin Garae of the Red Cross told CNN. “The situation is getting worse now in the south, people are now leaving their homes and move to evacuation centers in the east.” It’s not the first time the entire island has been evacuated: In September 2017, Vanuatu issued another emergency evacuation when the same volcano on Ambae erupted.




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