BREAKING: Major Earthquake Triggers Tsunami in Indonesia
Pastor Dale Morgan
BREAKING: Major Earthquake Triggers Tsunami in Indonesia*
By ROBIN McDOWELL
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 12, 2007; 1:12 PM
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A powerful earthquake shook Indonesia on
Wednesday, killing 10 people, injuring at least 100 and triggering a
small tsunami that hit one city on the island of Sumatra, authorities said.
The 8.4-magnitude quake off Sumatra badly damaged buildings along the
coast and could be felt in at least four countries, with tall buildings
swaying as far as 1,200 miles away.
It was followed by a series of aftershocks, the strongest of which
registered at a magnitude of 6.6 and triggered a second tsunami alert
for Indonesia, which was lifted about an hour later, said Suhardjono, an
official with Indonesia's meteorological agency, who goes by only one name.
At least seven people were killed in three Sumatran towns, Social
Affairs Department official Felix Valentino told the news Web site
detik.com. In the city of Padang, three bodies were pulled from badly
damaged buildings, a witness, Alfin, said by phone.
Excavation machinery was being used to search through the rubble for
survivors.
Most of the damage appeared to be from the quake.
A wave of up to 9 feet was reported to have struck Padang about 20
minutes after the initial quake, Suhardjono said.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center also reported that a small tsunami
hit Padang.
Several buildings in Padang were damaged and at least one car showroom
collapsed in the quake, according to detik.com, which said people were
searching to see if anyone was inside. Suhardjono said communication
with the area was difficult.
At least one person was killed and dozens injured in Bengkulu, the town
closest to the epicenter, local government official Salamun Harius told
El Shinta radio. At least 100 others were hospitalized, senior Health
Ministry official Rustam Pakaya said.
Residents in Bengkulu, where at least one building was demolished, said
the quake triggered panic and that people ran inland.
"Everyone is running out of their houses in every direction," said Wati
Said, who spoke by cell phone standing outside her house. "We think our
neighborhood is high enough. God willing, if the water comes, it will
not touch us here."
"Communication is cut, we can't call out," she added. "I don't know how
you contacted us. Everyone is afraid."
The quake could be felt in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, 375 miles
away, where office workers streamed down the stairwells of tall, swaying
buildings. It also caused tall buildings to sway in neighboring
Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
The undersea quake hit at about 6:10 p.m. (7:10 a.m. EDT), the U.S.
Geological Survey said. It was centered 80 miles southwest of Sumatra
island at a depth of 18.6 miles.
"Earthquakes of this size have the potential to generate a widespread
destructive tsunami that can affect coastlines across the entire Indian
Ocean Basin," the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said, warning that
waves could hit Indonesia and Australia within an hour, and Sri Lanka
and India within three hours.
It lifted the alert for Indonesia about two hours later, saying there
was no longer a potential for a destructive wave.
An official with Thailand's National Disaster Warning Center, Passakorn
Khanthasap, said it had sent cell phone text messages alerting hundreds
of officials in six southern provinces.
The Kenyan and Tanzanian governments issued tsunami warnings and told
people to leave beaches.
Residents of the coastal city of Mombasa were crowding into buses and
leaving sprawling public beaches after hearing the warning over the
radio. Police were moving people off the coastline.
In Seychelles, which would likely be hit by a tsunami before Kenya,
authorities said they had downgraded a tsunami warning because the
window for a strike had passed.
We do not really scare the people or get them to panic until we confirm
something is coming," Head of Risk and Disaster Management Michel Vielle
said.
In India, officials said nothing was felt in the remote Andaman and
Nicobar islands, some of which are just 150 miles north of Sumatra.
The Indian government issued a tsunami alert for the islands, and
officials were telling local authorities to take precautions, said
Dharam Pal, the regional relief commissioner.
In Australia, the tsunami warning was lifted after only small rises in
the sea level were measured at Cocos Island and the Christmas Islands.
But officials warned residents to stay away from the ocean, warning that
dangerous waves and currents could still affect beaches, harbors and
rivers for several hours.
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval
due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of
volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
In December 2004, a magnitude-9 earthquake struck off Sumatra island and
triggered a tsunami that killed more than 250,000 people in a dozen
countries, including 160,000 people in Indonesia's westernmost province
of Aceh.