Deadly quakes again hit Indonesia, raze houses
MATARAM, Indonesia — Powerful earthquakes struck the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok on Sunday, killing at least 91 people and shaking neighboring Bali, one week after another quake on Lombok killed more than a dozen.
The latest quakes, which triggered a brief tsunami warning, damaged buildings as far away as Denpasar on Bali, including a department store and the airport terminal, where ceiling panels were shaken loose, authorities said.
Video showed screaming people running in panic from houses in a Bali neighborhood and vehicles rocking. On Lombok, soldiers and other rescuers carried injured people on stretchers and carpets to an evacuation center.
National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the quakes were felt strongly
across Lombok and Bali and had damaged houses on both islands.
“People panicked and scattered on the streets and buildings and houses that had been damaged by the previous earthquake had become more damaged and collapsed,” he said in a statement.
Many victims were treated outdoors because hospitals were damaged in the quake while the nighttime search and rescue effort had been hampered by electricity and communications blackouts.
“The estimate of victims continues to grow,” Sutopo said.
Indonesia’s disaster agency said the death toll could rise as some areas have not been reached by rescuers.
Thousands of houses were damaged, and most of the dead victims were hit by collapsed houses, Nugroho said.
The quakes — one measured at 7.0 magnitude by Indonesian authorities and a still-powerful 6.9 by the U.S. Geological Survey — struck early Sunday evening at a depth of 6 miles in the northern part of Lombok and triggered a tsunami warning.
Another earthquake was measured at magnitude 6.8, Indonesia’s national Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said.
Minutes later, in what was most likely an aftershock measuring magnitude 5.6, the same region was jolted again, the agency said.
Dwikorita Karnawati, head of the meteorology agency, said in a televised statement that there were about 12 aftershocks or “smaller earthquakes.”
“I was watching TV when I felt a big shake,” said Harian, a Lombok woman who uses one name. “The lamp was shaking and people were shouting ‘Get out.’ I ran out into the dark because the power cut off.”
The Indonesia agency reported that the first two earthquakes both struck at 6:46 p.m. western Indonesian time. They occurred in the same area that a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck in the early hours of July 29, killing 17 people and injuring more than 160.
That quake sent villagers fleeing into open fields to avoid collapsing buildings.
The agency initially reported that Sunday’s earthquakes did not generate a tsunami, but within minutes put out a warning that a possible tsunami had formed off the north coast of Lombok. It said a tsunami had been detected in the Carik and Badas areas. The tsunami warning was later lifted.
Waves just 6 inches high were recorded in three villages, Karnawati said.
The Bali and Lombok airports continued operating Sunday night, according to the director general of civil aviation. There had been a half hour evacuation at the Lombok airport after the quake because the electricity went off. TV showed crying women consoling one another outside Lombok’s airport.
Australia’s home affairs minister tweeted that he and his delegation were safely evacuated in darkness from a Lombok hotel where they have been staying during a regional security conference.
The minister, Peter Dutton, told Fairfax Media that he was on the hotel’s 12th floor when the quake struck. He said the quake “was powerful enough to put us on the floor” and cut power.
Like Bali, Lombok is known for pristine beaches and mountains. Hotels and other buildings in both locations are not allowed to exceed the height of coconut trees.
Indonesia is prone to earthquakes because of its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. In December 2004, a magnitude-9.1 earthquake off Sumatra island triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.