Indonesian island lifted 25cm by quake that killed hundreds
RESCUE TEAMS CONTINUE TO SIFT THROUGH RUBBLE ON HOLIDAY ISLAND OF LOMBOK
Scientists say the powerful Indonesian earthquake that killed nearly 400 people lifted the island it struck by as much as 25 centimetres.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency said yesterday that 387 people died, jumping from the 321 it reported the previous day, as search and rescue teams continued to sift through the rubble and people already buried by relatives are accounted for. Using satellite images of Lombok from the days following the August 5 quake, scientists from Nasa and the California Institute of Technology’s joint rapid imaging project made a ground deformation map and measured changes in the island’s surface.
Epicentre
In the northwest of the island near the epicentre, the rupturing fault line lifted the earth by a quarter of a metre. In other places it dropped by 5-15 centimetres.
Nasa said satellite observations can help authorities respond to earthquakes and other natural or man-made disasters.
Almost 390,000 people, about 10 per cent of Lombok’s population, are homeless or displaced after the earthquake, which damaged and destroyed about 68,000 homes.
Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said three districts in the north of Lombok still haven’t received any assistance. The governor ■ of West Nusa Tenggara province, which includes Lombok, has extended the official emergency period by two weeks to August 25.
“It’s estimated the death toll will continue to grow because there are still victims who are suspected of being buried by landslides and collapsed buildings and there are deaths that have not been recorded,” Nugroho said.
The number of evacuees fluctuates, he said, because not all evacuee points have been counted and some people tend to their gardens and properties during the day and return to the tent camps at night. Some people don’t need to evacuate because their homes aren’t damaged but have come to refugee centers because they feel traumatised.
Nearly a week since the 7.0 quake, Lombok is still reeling but glimmers of normality were returning for some and devout villagers are making plans for temporary replacements of mosques that were flattened.
In Tanjung, one of the worst affected districts in the hardhit north of the island, a food market opened Saturday and locals bought vegetables and fish.
Lombok, a popular and less developed tourist destination than neighbouring Bali, was hit by three strong quakes in little over a week and has endured more than 500 aftershocks.
homeless or displaced after the earthquake on Lombok island