Dozens dead as strong quake hits Indonesia
Chrissy Teigen live-tweets story
At least 82 people were killed when a magnitude 7 earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Lombok — and shook the nearby tourist destination of Bali.
A brief tsunami warning was issued by local authorities but was later lifted. Video showed chaos, as people ran in panic and rescuers quickly tried to move injured parties to safety. The quake damaged buildings as far away as Denspar. Authorities said ceiling panels of an airport terminal were shaken loose.
Model and author Chrissy Teigen had been on vacation in Bali with her husband, Grammy-winning musician John Legend, and their 2-year-old, Luna, and 2-month-old, Miles, for the past week. Yesterday she felt trembling in her vacation house that’s on stilts. She proceeded to live-tweet in a semipanic as she felt strong shaking throughout the house.
“Oh my god,” she first tweeted, before later writing: “Oh man. We are on stilts. It felt like a ride. 15 solid seconds of ‘hooooooly (expletive) this is happening.”
Teigen continued to tweet for four hours after her initial message, later writing: “So many aftershocks” and “Another. Oh dear lord.”
She also bizarrely tweeted, “I very calmly walked outside saying clutching baby saying ‘I’m naked. I’m naked. I’m naked.’ Like a naked zombie.”
On Lombok, a disaster official said people were quickly retreating from homes to move to higher ground in North Lombok and Mataram, which is the capital of West Nusa Tenggara.
According to the director general of civil aviation, both the Bali and Lombok airports continued operating last night.
“I was watching TV when I felt a big shake,” a Lombok woman named Harian told The Associated Press. “The lamp was shaking and people were shouting, ‘Get out.’ I ran out into the dark because the power cut off.”
Lombok and Bali are both popular tourist vacation spots. Their location right on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” leaves them especially prone to earthquakes.
Sutopo Purwo, the spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, said that houses on both Lombok and Bali had been damaged and that the quake was felt on both islands.