Struck again
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.