Earthquake brings back bad memories

Earthquake brings back bad memories

Apriadi Gunawan and Sjofiardi Bachyul, The Jakarta Post, Medan/Padang

With her four-year-old daughter sobbing in her arms, Elly rushed
from her house in Belawan area after a very strong earthquake
measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale jolted Medan city late on
Monday.

Fearing another tsunami, Elly was desperate to get as far away
from the coast as possible, fleeing with her neighbors to higher
ground on Belmerah toll road.

She kept on running, even when enveloped in darkness after the
power failed due to the earthquake, the second biggest after the
9.0-magnitude quake and ensuing tsunamis that swept Nanggroe Aceh
Darussalam and North Sumatra on Dec. 26 last year.

The 29-year-old woman, and her neighbors, finally stopped
running when they reached the toll road. There, thousands of
other Belawan residents had taken shelter.

The Belawan residents stayed on the toll road for six hours,
bringing traffic to a halt. They eventually returned home after
government officials convinced them there was no tsunami risk.

Elly said she had heard rumors that the earthquake would cause
giant waves.

"I was so scared I decided to run to safety," she told The
Jakarta Post on the toll road at dawn on Tuesday.

She had been asleep at the time of the quake but had woken up
due to the violent rattling of her bed.

"If the quake was not so strong, I would not have woken up,"
recalled the woman, whose husband was out of town for business.

The strong quake also shocked other Medan residents.

Iskandar, who was staying in the Grand Angkasa Hotel in Medan,
said when the quake hit he headed outside as fast as he could.

"I was watching television when all the things in my room
began to shake. I quickly left the hotel room and ran
downstairs without so much as turning off the TV," he said.

According to Iskandar, the earthquake was much more powerful
than the one on Dec. 26.

"The latest quake was much stronger and lasted longer," said
Iskandar.

Other Medan residents abandoned their homes and took shelter
in safer places, including several mosques. Some, like Padang
Bulan residents, chose to flee to the higher Pancur Batu area.

A staff member of the North Sumatra coordination unit, Pandia,
said that no causalities had been reported in Medan so far.

Padangpanjang Meteorological and Geophysics Agency (BMG) in
West Sumatra said that Monday's earthquake reached IV Modified
Mercalli Intensity (MMI) in Padang, far above the scale of Dec.
26's earthquake of II MMI.

The MMI, otherwise called Ground Shaking Intensity, is a
subjective measure of the strength of an earthquake.

Monday's earthquake was also felt for longer in Padang than
the one on Dec. 26 -- 15 minutes as compared to five minutes.

Just like in Medan, the earthquake forced almost all residents
in Padang to flee to safer places.

People living by the beach fixed their eyes on the sea. But
there were no telltale signs of a tsunami, the tide did not
recede and the people were finally convinced of their safety.

untuk window

"I was watching television when all the things in my room began
to shake. I quickly left the hotel room and ran
downstairs without so much as turning off the TV."

-- Iskandar in Medan