washingtonpost.com, Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Hundreds Die in Indonesia After Undersea Earthquake
By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, March 29, 2005; Page A01
MEDAN, Indonesia, March 29 -- A major underwater earthquake struck off the coast
of Indonesia's Sumatra island late Monday, killing hundreds of people and crushing
buildings on a nearby resort island, according to Indonesian police.
Panicking residents raced to higher ground from the shoreline in Sumatra, fearing that
a tsunami would be generated. A larger earthquake in the same region on Dec. 26
produced a tsunami that killed an estimated 280,000 people in eleven countries
around the Indian Ocean. Tsunami warnings blared in Sri Lanka, India and Thailand,
which were hit in December, but no killer waves were produced.
The earthquake, with a magnitude of 8.7, triggered fires and devastated portions of
Nias Island, a popular surfing destination 45 miles from the epicenter and 75 miles off
the western coast of Sumatra. It ranks among the 10 biggest quakes since 1900,
according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Raymond Laia, a Catholic priest in the Nias town of Gunungsitoli, reported that a large
fire was raging early Tuesday, according to the Missionary Service News Agency.
"From the window I see very high flames," the agency quoted Laia as saying. He
spoke by telephone about two miles from the town center.
In Jakarta, about 800 miles to the southeast, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
said Tuesday he would fly to the stricken island. Vice President Jusuf Kalla said in a
radio interview that the death toll on Nias could be between 1,000 and 2,000. He said
he based his estimate on reports that 70 percent of buildings in the town had
collapsed, rather than on confirmed deaths.
Indonesia's disaster center estimated Tuesday that about 1,000 people were killed on
Nias, the Reuters news agency reported.
Police in Gunungsitoli also reported destruction and death. "About the victims, we
cannot count them now," said Zulkifly Sirait, a police sergeant quoted by the Reuters
news agency. "We only know there are many buildings flattened."
Nias, with a population of more than 600,000, was hit hard in the earlier quake, with
340 people reported killed and 10,000 left homeless.
Another police officer quoted by the Associated Press said rescuers were trying to
pull people out of the rubble and that many were still panicking because of continuing
aftershocks.
"We are busy now trying to pull people or bodies of children from the collapsed
building," said the officer, Nainggolan, who like many Indonesians uses only one
name. "It is very hard also because there is no power."
"The situation here is really messy," he said. "Aftershocks keep hitting every half
hour, making thousands of people flee their homes and afraid to go home."
"It was a very violent earthquake," said Jonathan Evans, the Indonesia country director
for Catholic Relief Services who was in Medan at the time. Evans said his group was
still trying to charter an aircraft to take emergency equipment to Nias and evacuate
the wounded. "We've gotten reports of serious loss of life and very damaged buildings
in Gunungsitoli," he said in a telephone interview.
"People haven't rebuilt their lives from the last one; this is such a body blow for
everyone living there," said Jude Barrand, of SurfAid International, a non-profit group
providing tsunami relief to islands off the western coast of Sumatra, including Nias.
"We're getting reports that on the islands it may worse than December in terms of
loss of life and infrastructure," Barrand said in a telephone interview from the
Sumatran town of Padang. She said SurfAid, which was organized by surfers in 2000,
was preparing a barge to take relief supplies to Nias and other nearby islands.
In Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province on Sumatra, people reported tremors that
lasted several minutes and said power was lost for about 10 minutes. At least
106,000 people were killed in Aceh in the December tsunami.
Residents said they had been instructed in recent community briefings to seek higher
ground if they felt a large earthquake. "If things happen, we have to leave," said Iwan,
a security guard at a house in downtown Aceh who was reached by cell phone.
Refugees who still live in tents and temporary housing streamed along darkened
Banda Aceh streets clogged with cars and motorbikes and fled to higher ground.
Some cried and clutched children in their arms. Others sought shelter in mosques,
which proved resistant in December when the ocean surged ashore.
"Where can I go? You can't outrun a tsunami," called out one man rushing into a
mosque, the Associated Press reported.
The Monday quake "was the biggest I've ever felt," said Helene Barnes, regional
manager for Asia and Pacific for Fauna & Flora International, an environmental group.
But she said that no houses appeared to have collapsed in her area and that her
colleagues in Calang on the western coast of Sumatra had reported no damage.
"Here in Banda Aceh, there have been a lot of people panicking. A lot of people
running and walking and driving from the sea. It's not an organized evacuation, but lots
of people were moving. I can hear lots more vehicles than normal," she said.
At 1:45 a.m., Indonesian Metro TV broadcast footage of a man with a megaphone
shouting in Indonesian on the streets of Banda Aceh. "The situation has returned to
normal," he announced. "The water is not rising. So you can all go back to your
homes."
Governments in other countries issued warnings based on the possibility of a tsunami
because of the quake's intensity.
Indian officials activated a disaster program early Tuesday and issued an advisory for
eight coastal states, citing the "possibility of this earthquake triggering a tsunami."
Dhirendra Singh, a Home Ministry official, said precautions were needed for six to
eight hours after the quake. The advisories were dropped Tuesday morning when no
tsunami developed.
While officials in Indian Ocean nations have discussed a satellite-based tsunami
warning network, it has not yet been implemented. "Our biggest preparation is that
there are no people on the coast," said Shivraj Patil, India's home minister. "We are
asking people not to panic, but at the same time to be vigilant. Every earthquake does
not convert into a tsunami."
Public address systems in the southern state of Tamil Nadu issued alerts and warned
some coastal residents to move inland as a precaution. At Port Blair, in India's
Andaman and Nicobar archipelago off the coasts of Thailand and Burma, officials said
sea levels had not changed. Portions of the islands were devastated in the December
tsunami.
Sri Lankan officials also held emergency meetings and broadcast warnings. Indian
television reported incidents of panic along the Sri Lankan coast, with people fleeing
their houses. Two people were reportedly killed in Sri Lanka during a panicky
evacuation from the coast in a Tamil rebel-held area, the Associated Press reported.
In Thailand, officials issued advisories for southern regions where an estimated 5,300
people died in the December tsunami. "Please evacuate to higher places now," said
Samith Dhammasaroj, a senior Thai official, in a radio broadcast.
Six Thai provinces were given evacuation orders, including Phuket island, a tourist
location that had been luring visitors back with bargains.
Special correspondent Rama Lakshmi in New Delhi and Yayu Yuniar in Medan
contributed to this report.
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