The Jakarta Post, March 07, 2007
70 die in Sumatra quake
Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, The Jakarta Post, Solok, Jakarta
At least 70 people were killed in earthquakes in West Sumatra on Tuesday morning.
Many people are still trapped in buildings, and the death toll is expected to rise
across the seven affected regencies and townships.
Unicef put the death toll at 82, AFP reported, although local authorities would not
confirm the number.
Officials with the Meteorological and Geophysical Agency (BMG) said the first quake
in West Sumatra hit at 10:23 a.m. near Padang, the capital, where residents had
been drilled in anticipation of quakes and tsunamis since the 2004 disaster in
Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam.
Measuring on the Richter scale at 4.9, with the epicenter in the ocean some 29
kilometers from Padang, BMG officials said there was no reason to fear a tsunami,
which is expected only after quakes around 7 on the Richter scale.
A second, more serious quake of 5.8 on the Richter scale occurred at 10:49 a.m.,
with the epicenter detected 16 kilometers from Batu Sangkar, the capital of Tanah
Datar regency.
Tremors from both quakes were felt in the neighboring provinces of Jambi and Riau
and as far away as Malaysia and Singapore. The U.S. Geological Survey put the
quake at 6.3. Aftershocks were also felt in the province.
Apart from Tanah Datar, the worst affected areas in the province straddling the Bukit
Barisan mountain range were Solok, Bukittinggi and Padang Panjang.
In Padang, footage from Metro TV showed terrified patients and medical staff fleeing a
hospital, and patients including a newborn baby and its mother being evacuated.
Kompas reported that Tanah Datar regent Shadiq Pasadique was among those
treated in Padang.
Roads in the cities were choked with traffic as residents fled.
While visiting patients and refugees at a makeshift shelter at Merdeka field in Solok,
Governor Gamawan Fauzi, formerly the Solok regent, warned of the possible effect the
earthquake could have on nearby mountains Marapi and Talang, respectively located
in Tanah Datar and Solok.
"We should look out for the aftermath," Gamawan said, citing experts warnings of
increased activity in the volcanoes since the morning's quakes.
He said that 50 kiosks at Bukittinggi's market had caught fire and three people had
been killed when part of the famed Ngarai Sianok canyon in the town collapsed.
Gamawan and councillors had fled the council building in Padang following the second
earthquake, which hit while they were in a meeting.
In Solok, at least 60 buildings were damaged. A kindergarten building collapsed and a
child and teacher were killed by falling concrete.
Solok mayor Syamsul Rahim said at least 70 victims with both serious and minor
injuries were being treated in tents erected near Merdeka Field.
Reports said four children and six women in Solok were killed in a fire at an
elementary school, attributed to a lit stove belonging to a food vendor. Antara reported
that the women, including food vendors, were mothers of the students who ran
towards classes to save their children when the quake hit.
Two students were killed in a school playground hit by debris, police said.
Nanda Febrian, a student in Padang, told AFP her university building shook and she
rushed to open ground with her friends.
"We really felt the quake, the biggest two timesall the students panicked and ran from
the third floor," she said.
The earthquakes were among the most severe to hit Indonesia since the 2004
earthquake in Aceh and Nias, North Sumatra, which killed some 200,000 people, and
the quake last May in Central Java that killed around 6,000 people.
In July last year almost 600 people were killed in an earthquake-driven tsunami at the
Pangandaran beach resort.
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