17 August,2026 01:23 PM IST | Reo | AP
Thousands of people displaced by a powerful earthquake in eastern Indonesia awaited much-needed aid on August 17 as they camped out at schools, police stations and government offices, with many stuck outside. Pic/AFP
Thousands of people were still waiting for aid on the Indonesian island of Flores as the country marked its 81st Independence Day on Monday, days after a powerful earthquake killed at least 55 people, injured dozens and damaged hundreds of homes and other buildings.
Many residents on Flores island in East Nusa Tenggara province spent the day mourning victims and waiting for aid to arrive to communities still cut off by the deadly quake.
During Indonesia's Independence Day ceremony in the capital Jakarta, President Prabowo Subianto asked participants to pray for people affected by disasters in East Nusa Tenggara and other parts of the country, while leading a nationwide moment of silence honouring the nation's independence heroes.
More than 1,300 homes were damaged when the quake struck East Nusa Tenggara province on Saturday, with nearly 250 destroyed on Flores alone. Some 5,000 people were forced into temporary shelters and more than 130 people were injured, according to the National Disaster Management Agency.
The province's governor declared a 14-day state of emergency on Sunday.
The quake occurred at a depth of 10 kilometres (6 miles) shortly before 6 am Saturday, according to the US Geological Survey, and residents fled in panic as tsunami warnings were issued but later lifted. Authorities have since recorded at least 995 aftershocks, though only 46 were felt by residents.
Thousands of people on Flores camped outside collapsed homes under tarpaulin tents overnight into Monday, sleeping outside because of the danger of more aftershocks.
An Associated Press photojournalist saw widespread devastation across the island, with fallen trees blocking roads, giant boulders hurled down slopes by landslides, and homes left shattered or heavily damaged. Buildings collapsed onto parked cars.
For many residents, the disaster revived painful memories of a powerful earthquake and tsunami that struck Flores in 1992, killing about 2,500 people.
"My house is just rubble now," said Rasyid Jafar, a clothing trader in the village of Reo, the hardest-hit area in Manggarai regency, "We need food, medicine and clean water urgently."
More than 3,500 military and police personnel have been deployed across the disaster zone and 275 tons of aid have been sent to the area, though logistical challenges have slowed deliveries to some hard-hit communities.
Aid workers reached tiny Palue Island, one of the areas closest to the earthquake's epicenter, late Sunday, after a difficult sea and land journey through landslide-hit terrain, authorities said. Thousands of residents remained in urgent need of assistance after days of isolation.
"The roads are steep and many were blocked by landslides. It was a near-death journey," said deputy police chief of Sikka regency, Marselus Yugo Amboro, whose team was among the first to reach the island with emergency supplies.
He said initial assessments revealed extensive damage, with one villager killed, two seriously injured and nearly 150 homes destroyed.
Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions because of its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," a horseshoe-shaped arc of seismic faults and volcanoes.
In 2018, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake triggered a tsunami on the island of Sulawesi that killed more than 4,400 people. In 2004, a magnitude 9.1 quake off Sumatra unleashed a tsunami that killed about 230,000 people in a dozen countries, nearly 170,000 in Aceh province alone.
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