Earthquake brings back bad memories<\/p>\n
Apriadi Gunawan and Sjofiardi Bachyul, The Jakarta Post, Medan\/Padang<\/p>\n
With her four-year-old daughter sobbing in her arms, Elly rushed
\nfrom her house in Belawan area after a very strong earthquake
\nmeasuring 8.7 on the Richter scale jolted Medan city late on
\nMonday.<\/p>\n
Fearing another tsunami, Elly was desperate to get as far away
\nfrom the coast as possible, fleeing with her neighbors to higher
\nground on Belmerah toll road.<\/p>\n
She kept on running, even when enveloped in darkness after the
\npower failed due to the earthquake, the second biggest after the
\n9.0-magnitude quake and ensuing tsunamis that swept Nanggroe Aceh
\nDarussalam and North Sumatra on Dec. 26 last year.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old woman, and her neighbors, finally stopped
\nrunning when they reached the toll road. There, thousands of
\nother Belawan residents had taken shelter.<\/p>\n
The Belawan residents stayed on the toll road for six hours,
\nbringing traffic to a halt. They eventually returned home after
\ngovernment officials convinced them there was no tsunami risk.<\/p>\n
Elly said she had heard rumors that the earthquake would cause
\ngiant waves.<\/p>\n
\"I was so scared I decided to run to safety,\" she told The
\nJakarta Post on the toll road at dawn on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
She had been asleep at the time of the quake but had woken up
\ndue to the violent rattling of her bed.<\/p>\n
\"If the quake was not so strong, I would not have woken up,\"
\nrecalled the woman, whose husband was out of town for business.<\/p>\n
The strong quake also shocked other Medan residents.<\/p>\n
Iskandar, who was staying in the Grand Angkasa Hotel in Medan,
\nsaid when the quake hit he headed outside as fast as he could.<\/p>\n
\"I was watching television when all the things in my room
\nbegan to shake. I quickly left the hotel room and ran
\ndownstairs without so much as turning off the TV,\" he said.<\/p>\n
According to Iskandar, the earthquake was much more powerful
\nthan the one on Dec. 26.<\/p>\n
\"The latest quake was much stronger and lasted longer,\" said
\nIskandar.<\/p>\n
Other Medan residents abandoned their homes and took shelter
\nin safer places, including several mosques. Some, like Padang
\nBulan residents, chose to flee to the higher Pancur Batu area.<\/p>\n
A staff member of the North Sumatra coordination unit, Pandia,
\nsaid that no causalities had been reported in Medan so far.<\/p>\n
Padangpanjang Meteorological and Geophysics Agency (BMG) in
\nWest Sumatra said that Monday's earthquake reached IV Modified
\nMercalli Intensity (MMI) in Padang, far above the scale of Dec.
\n26's earthquake of II MMI.<\/p>\n
The MMI, otherwise called Ground Shaking Intensity, is a
\nsubjective measure of the strength of an earthquake.<\/p>\n
Monday's earthquake was also felt for longer in Padang than
\nthe one on Dec. 26 -- 15 minutes as compared to five minutes.<\/p>\n
Just like in Medan, the earthquake forced almost all residents
\nin Padang to flee to safer places.<\/p>\n
People living by the beach fixed their eyes on the sea. But
\nthere were no telltale signs of a tsunami, the tide did not
\nrecede and the people were finally convinced of their safety.<\/p>\n
untuk window<\/p>\n
\"I was watching television when all the things in my room began
\nto shake. I quickly left the hotel room and ran
\ndownstairs without so much as turning off the TV.\"<\/p>\n
-- Iskandar in Medan<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/earthquake-brings-back-bad-memories-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }