Panic During NTT Earthquake: Electricity Poles Toppled, House Floors Split

A shipyard worker in Marapokot, Mbay, Nagekeo, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), Samsul Bahri (43), described the panic when a magnitude 7 earthquake shook the area on Saturday (15/8).

Samsul said the earthquake occurred before 06.00 WITA. At the time, he had just woken up after his mobile phone alarm went off.

“The earthquake was around just before 06.00 WITA. I had woken up because of the alarm on my phone, then I turned off the alarm and was lying down for a bit. Not long after, it shook hard. The floor of the house split. I only saw the floor starting to split, I didn’t look any further and immediately ran,” Samsul recounted.

Samsul admitted he did not yet know the condition of his house after leaving the area. When the earthquake struck, residents around his neighbourhood immediately rushed to leave the coastal area using their own vehicles.

“I no longer know the condition of the house now. The main thing is we just ran to save ourselves first. When we fled, people around the beach had already run, scattered, all getting into their own vehicles heading to higher ground,” Samsul explained.

On the way to the evacuation site, Samsul saw a number of electricity poles toppled by the roadside. He also saw parts of the walls of residents’ houses collapsed.

“On the road there were several electricity poles down. We saw some houses with their walls collapsed too,” he said.

Samsul, who is a newcomer to Nagekeo, said he did not yet know exactly where he was evacuating to. He simply followed local residents to move away from the coastal area.

“We are all evacuating now, fleeing from the beach towards the mountains. Right now I also don’t know where we are. I’m a newcomer. We are evacuating in front of BRI. But the locals just said, ‘It’s safe, we’re already far from the beach.’ The important thing is to be far from the coast first,” he concluded.