Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Indonesian disaster management team rescued more than 2000 tourists from Indonesian island Lombok which was deeply devastated due to 6.9 magnitude earthquake.
This shallow 6.9-magnitude earth quake happened as the movement of tectonic plates near Bali sparked. The tremor among tourists and locals alike, coming just a week after another deadly tremor surged through Lombok and killed 17 people. The administrative rescuers used diggers and heavy machinery to clear debris and search for survivors on Monday.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said it expected the death toll to rise once the rubble of more than 13,000 flattened and damaged houses was cleared away.
Electricity and telephonic communications were deeply affected in some areas with landslides and a collapsed bridge blocking access to areas around the quake epicenter in the north – forcing rescue teams to bring in the heavy machinery. The military said it would send a ship with medical aid, supplies and logistics support.
The National disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said, there were fears a number of people were trapped in the ruins of a collapsed mosque in the northern village of Lading-Lading.
The shattered roads were hampering efforts to reach survivors in the mountainous north and east of the island, which had been hardest hit.
Najmul Akhyar, the head of North Lombok district, estimated that 80 per cent of that region was damaged by the quake.
He said up to 20,000 people may have had to quit their homes on Lombok and paramedics, food and medication were badly needed.
The spokesman said search and rescue teams also rescued between 2,000 and 2,700 tourists from the Gili Islands, three tiny, coral-fringed tropical islands a few kilometres off the northwest coast of Lombok.
By early afternoon, hundreds of weary tourists had arrived with their baggage at Bangsal Harbour, the main link between Lombok and the Gilis.
Seven local tourists died on the largest of the three islands, Gili Trawangan, while another local woman died on nearby Bali. But it was Lombok which bore the brunt of Sunday evening’s quake.
The Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) said more than 120 aftershocks were recorded after Sunday evening’s quake.The quake knocked out power in many areas and parts of Lombok remained without power on Monday.
Hundreds of bloodied and bandaged victims were treated outside damaged hospitals in the main city of Mataram and other hard-hit areas. The patients lay on beds under wards set up in tents, surrounded by drip stands and monitors, as doctors in blue scrubs attended to them.
Tags: ‘Wonderful Indonesia’, Climatology and Geophysics, earthquake, indonesia, Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, lombok
