Lombok mops up after killer quake

DEATH TOLL: LIKELY TO RISE AS INFORMATION COMES IN

Second disaster in a week in the area prompts exodus of tourists.

Mataram

Rescue workers found chaos and destruction across the Indonesian resort island of Lombok yesterday after a magnitude 6.9 earthquake killed at least 91 people and prompted an exodus of tourists rattled by the second powerful quake in a week.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said the death toll was expected to rise as information came in from areas where thousands of buildings collapsed or were badly damaged, especially in the north, the quake’s epicentre.

Power and communications were cut in some areas of Lombok and the military said it was sending in a vessel with medical aid, supplies and logistical support for the island.

The Indonesian Red Cross said in a tweet it helped a woman give birth after the quake at a health post in the north. One of the names she gave the baby boy was Gempa, which means earthquake.

Lombok was hit a week earlier, on July 29, by a 6.4-magnitude quake that killed 17 people, injured hundreds and briefly stranded several hundred trekkers on the slopes of a volcano.

The Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics said more than 120 aftershocks were recorded after Sunday evening’s quake, whose magnitude the US Geological Survey revised down to 6.9 from an original 7.0.

There were no foreigners among the dead and the number of injured stood at 209, said BNPB spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

The tremor was so powerful it was felt on the neighbouring island of Bali where, according to BNPB, two people died. Indonesia sits on the geologically active Pacific Ring of Fire and is regularly hit by earthquakes.

“I was at the rooftop of my hotel and the building started swaying very hard. It felt like two metres to the left, then two metres to the right, I could not stand up,” said Gino Poggiali, a 43-year-old Frenchman, who was with his wife and two children, at the Lombok airport.

“This is it for me. I’m now finished with Indonesia,” said his wife, Maude, 44. “Next time we will stay in France or somewhere close.” – Reuters

I’m now finished with Indonesia.