Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Sun, 13 Dec 1992 18:11:26 PST
From:         Charles Scheiner <cscheiner@IGC.APC.ORG>
Subject:      Over 1200 Dead On Flores

/* Written  7:31 am  Dec 13, 1992 by apakabar@igc.apc.org in igc:reg.indonesia
 */
/* ---------- "Over 1200 Dead On Flores" ---------- */


    According toa December 13 Reuter story datelined Kupang, rescuers
have recovered 1,226 bodies after an earthquake and tidal waves devastated
parts of the eastern Indonesian island of Flores but fear the death toll
will keep rising.
    Local officials who gave the figure appealed on Sunday for tents and
medicines for the survivors of the country's worst earthquake in years.
    "We fear the death toll will go higher," a spokesman for the
government of East Nusa Tenggara province said in the provincial capital
of Kupang.
    He was quoting a report by provincial governor Hendrikus Fernandez,
who returned from a brief visit to the disaster area earlier on Sunday.
    Fernandez was reported to have seen extensive damage especially in
and around Maumere, a town of 70,000 people which bore the brunt of
Saturday's earthquake.
    The quake struck at 0529 GMT with an intensity of 6.8 on the Richter
scale. Its epicentre was in the sea just 30 km (19 miles) from the town.
    Fernandez said in his report that about 1,000 of the dead were in
Maumere, while the rest were killed in other parts of Flores. He saw
little life on one small island or in a shattered fishing village near
Maumere as he overflew the area.
    About 30 to 40 per cent of Maumere's buildings were damaged and not
the 90 per cent reported earlier.
    Fernandez expressed fears for survivors caught in the open during
the rainy season and said there was a risk of disease. But he said two
ships with emergency supplies had already been sent from Kupang on the
neighbouring island of Timor and the situation was stabilising.
    What was needed now was medicine and tents, he added in his report.
    His spokesman said tidal waves had smashed into Maumere's seafront
and port. "This is the worst earthquake in the history of East Nusa
Tenggara," he said. The province is prone to earthquakes.
    Herman Gadidjou, a senior aide to the governor in Kupang, said many
fishermen and others went missing after the tidal waves swept the
shoreline and the port.
    He said hundreds of residents of the town were spending Sunday night
huddled in the fields for fear of further tremors.
    "I think this is a national disaster and we are appealing for help
from Jakarta," said Gadidjou. He said medicines and doctors were badly
needed.
    "We also need more people to come and help," he added.
    Flores, a predominantly Roman Catholic island, is a tourist
attraction famed for its coral and colourful religious festivals.It was
not immediately known if any foreigners were among the victims.
    A series of tremors hit eastern Indonesia last year, killing at
least 22 people and causing extensive damage to property.
    The last major earthquake to hit the country was also in the east,
in Irian Jaya in 1989. The quake, which measured 5.6 on the Richter
scale, triggered off landslides that killed 97 people.


   According to a December 13 AFP story datelined Jakarta, at least 1,100
bodies have been found at the eastern Indonesian town of Maumere on Flores
island, which was near the epicentre of a strong earthquake that struck the
region Saturday, provincial officials in Kupang said.
   "We are cancelling whatever toll we gave you before," said East
Nusatenggara provincial governor's assistant Gadijo on Sunday. "The governor
just came back from Maumere and said that in Maumere alone 1,100 died in the
quake and because of tidal waves."
   "The possibility of there being much more bodies, not withstanding those
missing and injured, is still great," Gadijo added.
   An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale jolted the eastern half
of Flores at 0529 GMT Saturday. Its epicentre was in the Savu Sea, some 30
kilometres (18 miles) southwest of Maumere.
   Officials earlier said that the quake and the resulting tidal waves, had
hit at least three regencies in the eastern half of Flores.
   Tidal waves with heights between six and 25 metres (18 and 75 feet)
pounded both the northern and southern coasts of the region, with the sea
flooding some 300 metres (yards) inland in some places, according to reports.
   Gadijo said that efforts were continuing to find survivors and the bodies
of victims in the rubble of Maumere. Officials in the provincial capital
Kupang said that Maumere was 90 percent destroyed by the quake and tidal waves.
   About 200 armed forces troops and local youths had left Kupang on board a
boat to help relief efforts in Flores, Gadijo said.


   According to a December 13 AP story by Ghafur Fadyl datelined Jakarta, the
death toll from a powerful earthquake in eastern Indonesia has reached 1,100,
a government official said Sunday.
   A spokesman for the governor of East Nusa Tenggara province said the
deaths were scattered throughout the island of Flores. At least 500
others were injured, he said.
   Hendrik Nai, a spokesman for the rescue teams, said bad
communications were hampering the gathering of information from some
parts of the island, which is about 1,000 miles east of Jakarta.
   Indonesian officials measured the quake at 6.8 on the Richter scale.
The U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., measured it at
7.5 on the Richter scale.
   J. Gadidjou, a spokesman for the province's governor, said ships were
bringing volunteers, food and medicine from nearby towns to the damaged
areas.
   Nai said about 80 percent of the buildings in Maumere, in the
northern part of Flores, were destroyed in the quake. Entire villages in
coastal areas were wiped out by waves triggered by the quake, he said.
   The waves, called tsunami, were as high as 80 feet and swept as far
as 1,000 feet inland, he said.
   The quake destroyed government buildings, schools, mosques, churches
and shops in the towns of Maumere and Larantuka in the eastern part of
the island.
   Aftershocks spaced about five minutes apart continued to jolt the
island until about midnight Saturday, further hampering rescue work, Nai
said.
   Most people remained away from their houses, many of which were in
danger of collapsing. They spent the night outside in open areas and
fields with no tents in a tropical rainstorm.
   The quake was centered about 19 miles southwest of Maumere, a coastal
town with a population of 40,000 people, officials said.
   Indonesia is along the Pacific Ocean's volcanic "rim of fire" and is
hit by many strong temblors each year.
   In July 1991, an earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale killed
about 30 people on the island of Alor in southeastern Indonesia.
   An earthquake in 1979 measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale killed about
100 people and a 1977 temblor registering 8.0 killed about 200.
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