Struck again
They say that lightning never strikes twice. But earthquakes apparently do. Just a few days over three months since a 9- magnitude temblor sent the ocean crashing over littoral areas around the region leaving 288,000 people dead or missing, another killer quake measuring 8.7 on the open-ended Richter scale jolted roughly the same area around the Indian Ocean near midnight on Monday.
Given the remoteness of many of the areas that were affected, precise information of the devastation which this latest calamity has wrought is as yet difficult to obtain. But even at this early stage, officials are reporting that hundreds, and probably thousands, of people have been killed, many of them by their collapsing houses while they lay fast asleep as the midnight hour approached. The first temblor struck the northern parts of Sumatra at 11:15 p.m. local time.
In urban centers, such as Banda Aceh, Lhok Seumawe and Medan, thousands fled their homes for higher ground in cars, on motorbike or on foot, mindful of the near-total devastation that the Dec. 26 earthquake-triggered tsunami wrought some three months earlier. Calm returned only after it became clear that no new tsunami was about to materialize and that in terms of both magnitude and destructive effect, Monday's temblor was far less than the Dec. 26 killer quake.
Even so, it is clear that the devastation is considerable. In the early hours after the tremor, for example, officials in Gunungsitoli, capital of the remote island of Nias off the West Sumatra coast, reported that about 70 percent of the buildings in and around the local market had been destroyed and hundreds of people had been killed. Appalling as it may be, that report may paint an overoptimistic picture of the situation. And while Gunungsitoli was without doubt hard hit, the devastation is believed to be probably even greater at Teluk Dalam, the island's remote port, near the popular surfing beach of Lagundri.
Whatever the case, these are tentative observations and the precise extent of the damage will only become clear after methodical tallies have been made. In one estimate, given by Vice President Jusuf Kalla in Jakarta on Tuesday morning and based merely on the number of buildings destroyed, the death toll could be anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 on the island of Nias alone. As of Tuesday noon, rescue workers were reported to be still pulling bodies from out of the wreckage of buildings on Nias Island, but poor communications have so far hampered rescue operations elsewhere.
It is heartening to learn that offers of help have already come in from countries as far apart as the United States, Australia and Japan. All have said they would be ready to send assistance as soon as they receive a request from the Indonesian government. And given the sort of spirit of international cooperation in times of adversity that was demonstrated in the wake of the Dec. 26 tsunami, there is little doubt that more countries will follow suit. The Indonesian Red Cross, for its part, has already rushed a team and medical supplies to the island to help the victims.
Amid all this, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's gesture of sympathy to those affected by this most recent calamity certainly deserves to be commended. We have no doubt that the Australian authorities will fully understand and accept the president's decision to delay his planned visit to Canberra, given the circumstances.
We are more than thankful for all the help that has been extended to the victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami in Aceh and North Sumatra. We only hope that the same assistance can be made available, and without too much delay, to the people of Nias and the nearby islands and regions who have been made to suffer at the hands of nature.