Quake, gale kill two in Bali, N. Sumatra
The Jakarta Post, Denpasar/Medan/Makassar
An earthquake killed one person and injured two others on Wednesday on the resort island of Bali, while a gale that swept through several parts of the country claimed one life and damaged hundreds of houses in North Sumatra.
A 33-year old construction worker, identified as I Ketut Suardana, died in hospital of serious head wounds after falling from the second floor of a building in Denpasar, Bali, officials said.
Suardana, a resident of Jl. Gunung Agung who was working on a building for Udayana University, fell 20 meters to the ground when the quake measuring on 5.5 on the Richter scale shook Denpasar at around 3:35 p.m.
The two victims injured in the disaster were Gede Arkama, 30, and I Gusti Ayu Putu Windari, 32.
Arkama broke his left hand and right leg as he jumped from the second floor of his home that was under renovation, while Windari sustained serious injuries to the face and head as she fell down the stairs at the garment factory where she worked.
The quake hit Bali for around five minutes and was also felt strongly on the neighboring resort island of Lombok, the local Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) said.
BMG official Budi Sunarso said the epicenter was about 80 kilometers deep under the sea and around 17 kilometers southwest of Denpasar, Bali's capital city.
"Because the epicenter was close to the land, the tremor was felt strongly by local residents," he added.
Budi said that there were no more aftershocks recorded by the seismograph after the earthquake.
Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are common in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands and islets strung along the Pacific "ring of fire".
In February at least 28 people were killed when a succession of powerful quakes hit Papua province. A month earlier a quake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale damaged more than 6,000 buildings and caused losses of about US$12 million on Bali and Lombok.
Meanwhile, A gale killed one person and destroyed hundreds of houses in North Sumatra, officials said on Wednesday.
A woman died after being hit by a falling tree, while at least 278 houses in a number of areas across the province were damaged amid two days of strong wind and rain.
The woman was identified as Kusmini, 45, a housewife and mother from Kuto Mulyo village in Biru-Biru, Deli Serdang.
Biru-Biru district head Binsar TH Sitanggang said Kusmini was returning from her farm in the neighboring village of Tanjung Sena when the accident occurred
Villagers who observed the accident rushed to assist Kusmini, but she was already dead, he added.
Along with the neighboring town of Binjai, Biru-Biru is among six districts in Deli Serdang that suffered the worst of the gale. The five other districts are Lubuk Pakam, Pagar Merbau, Beringin, Pantai Labu and Tanjung Morawa.
A total of 278 houses were destroyed in Deli Serdang and Binjai alone.
The head of Polonia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency in Medan, Firman, said the cyclonic winds were due to extreme changes of temperature in the province that resulted in strong convection currents.
"This condition will continue until October. It means there will more cyclonic winds -- a threat that should be anticipated, particularly in mountainous areas," Firman said.
Strong winds also continued in South Sulawesi, destroying about 1,725 buildings over the last few days, but no deaths were reported.
Andi Syamsul Alam, a senior official with the province's Barru regental administration, said on Wednesday at least 59 public facilities such as schools and mosques, were damaged.
Many villagers refused to stay inside their homes, most of which are made of wood, for fear of further winds. Instead, many of them are sheltering underneath their houses.