Second earthquake hits Papua New Guinea, kills 18

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

It has been reported that at least 18 people have been killed after a strong quake aftershock that struck Papua New Guinea’s mainland.

One of the officials mentioned that a magnitude of 6.7 quake hitting the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea early today added to the death toll from a larger earthquake nine days ago.

The latest that hit a short while after midnight local time was a great aftershock.

It was also in a region that was adversely impacted by a magnitude 7.5 quake that flattened villages and triggered landslides killing at least 55 people. The administrator of Hela Province, William Bando mentioned that he had already received reports stating that 18 people were killed last night.

Aid workers and authorities have struggled to reach the rugged highland region to assess the extent of the damage of February 26^th’s first earthquake and offer aid to locals.

Cracked airstrips, blocked roads, landslides and damaged telecommunication links have badly affected efforts by authorities to provide an exact death toll and offer supplies to over 150,000 people that agencies estimate are in requirement of aid.

Today Peter O’Neill mentioned that critical relief supplies were eventually flowing into devastated regions of Papua New Guinea.

Aid was yet to reach isolated portions of the Southern Highlands, Hela, Enga and Western provinces. Before the latest aftershock, Mr. O’Neill said that medicine, food and water were starting to get through and aircraft ferrying supplies to Mendi and Moro airports in Southern Highlands.

New Zealand and Australia have promised aid, while Israel has delivered 40 generators to help restore power.

Last month’s earthquake was the largest to strike the seismically-active highlands in nearly a century.

Papua New Guinea is based on the so-called ‘Ring of Fire’ – hotbed of seismic activity surrounding a tectonic plate spanning the pacific.

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