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Sjamsir Sjarif
June 5, 2000
Earthquake Shakes Sumatra, 58 Dead
Filed at 3:38 a.m. EDT
By The Associated Press
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- At least 58 people
died and 500 were
injured in a powerful earthquake that lasted for
minutes in the
Indonesian island of Sumatra and was followed by
dozens of strong
aftershocks today.
Widespread panic was reported in Bengkulu, a
province of about 1.2
million people near the tremor's epicenter, as
rescuers dug through
the rubble of ruined buildings in search of
bodies and trapped
survivors.
Ali Muchtar, Bengkulu health department chief,
said 58 people were
confirmed dead -- a total that was expected to
rise. Almost 500
people had been reported injured, 255 seriously.
The quake hit at 11:29 p.m. Sunday and was
centered beneath the
Indian Ocean, about 60 west of Bengkulu city,
which has about
250,000 residents. The Indonesian Meteorological
and Geophysical
Service said the quake measured magnitude 7.3.
The U.S. Geological
Survey in Golden, Colo., estimated the strength
at 7.9.
The quake lasted several minutes and shook a
wide area. A magnitude
6 aftershock hit 11 minutes afterward, and 53
smaller tremors were
recorded before 6 a.m. today.
``The quake went on for many minutes. Dozens of
homes have been
destroyed and almost all houses and buildings in
the city seem to have
been damaged,'' said Bengkulu police Sgt.
Hariyono. ``People are
terrified every time they feel aftershocks.''
Thousands fled their homes. Witnesses reported
widespread panic in
Bengkulu and said hospitals were overwhelmed
with injured people.
Electricity and water supplies had been cut.
Many phone lines were
down.
``Many houses have collapsed and the walls on
bigger buildings have
been fractured. I helped save three of my
neighbors who were trapped
under rubble,'' said Edy, a resident who like
many Indonesians uses
only one name.
Doctors in Bengkulu treated the injured in the
open, fearing
aftershocks might bring down the state hospital,
the official Antara
news agency reported.
Medical supplies were running low. Antara
reported that some doctors
had been forced to perform minor operations
without anesthetics.
The city's airport was closed because of damage
to its
communications equipment and passenger terminal.
Some roads to the
city had ben blocked by landslides.
President Abdurrahman Wahid offered no immediate
emergency
response, saying instead that his government had
to assess the
problem.
The quake, one of the strongest recorded in
Indonesia in recent years,
was felt across much of western half of the
archipelago nation and
the neighboring island state of Singapore.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake's
epicenter was about 20
1/2 miles beneath the floor of the Indian Ocean
-- very shallow in
geological terms. But there were no immediate
reports of a tsunami, a
massive wave caused by an earthquake or volcanic
eruption.
In December 1992, a magnitude-7 earthquake
caused a tsunami that
killed about 2,500 people on the southeastern
island of Flores. A
magnitude-7 earthquake is capable of causing
widespread and heavy
damage in urban areas.
Indonesia, the world's biggest archipelago
nation, sits on major fault
lines and is prone to frequent seismic upheavals.
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