Thousands left homeless
by a powerful quake on the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok took shelter in makeshift tents as authorities expect the toll of 98 dead will rise.
SENGGIGI, Indonesia — Thousands left homeless by a powerful quake that ruptured roads and flattened buildings on the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok sheltered Monday night in makeshift tents as authorities said rescuers hadn’t yet reached all devastated areas and expect the toll of 98 dead to climb.
It was the second deadly quake in a week to hit Lombok, a less-developed island compared with its more famous neighbor Bali, where the strong tremors caused panic and damaged buildings.
A July 29 quake killed 16 people and damaged hundreds of houses on Lombok, some of which collapsed in Sunday’s quake, measured at magnitude 7.0 by Indonesian authorities and 6.9 by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Damage was “massive” in mountainous northern Lombok, where the quake was centered, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. In several districts, more than half the homes were destroyed or severely damaged.
A large mosque collapsed on worshippers in northern Lombok’s Lading-Lading village, and rescuers used a backhoe to search the debris. The number of victims was unknown.
Some areas still hadn’t been reached 24 hours after the quake because of collapsed bridges, blocked and ruptured roads and the loss of power and communications.
More than 230 people were seriously injured. Thousands of homes and buildings were damaged and those displaced camped wherever they could — in sports fields and on roadsides, cobbling together ramshackle shelters and building campfires for warmth.
The quake struck at a shallow depth of 6 miles. Shallow quakes tend to cause more damage than deeper ones.
On Gili Trawangan, one of three popular vacation islands near Lombok, thousands of tourists and residents spent Sunday night on a hill because of tsunami fears, said British visitor Saffron Amis.
“There was a lot of screaming and crying, particularly from the locals,” said Amis, from Brighton. “We spoke to a lot of them and they were panicking about their family in Lombok. It was just a lot of panic because no one knew what was happening.”
By Monday morning, with electricity off and hotels and hostels damaged, thousands were desperate to leave.
Hundreds packed a sliver of beach on Trawangan island, shouting at rescue personnel trying to ensure an orderly evacuation, according to video and photos from the local water police.
Nugroho said authorities deployed ships to evacuate people from the three islands. About 2,700 had left, but several thousand more tourists and hotel employees are waiting to leave, he said.
The Bali and Lombok airports have stayed open.
Model Chrissy Teigen, who was in Bali with her husband, singer John Legend, and their two children, live-tweeted the shaking.
“Bali. Trembling. So long,” Teigen tweeted to her 10.6 million followers.
Hours later, she asked news organizations not to write more stories about her lively stream-of-consciousness tweets, suggesting media focus instead on those who need help.