Earthquake Kills Tourists In Indonesia
CNN reported Sunday that an Earthquake in Indonesia killed 14 tourists on the island of Lombok.
The 6.4 magnitude earthquake sent Lombok residents into disarray as they attempted to escape from collapsing homes and buildings on Sunday.
According to the National Disaster Management Agency of Indonesia, 14 people died and around 162 people were seriously injured. The agency’s spokesperson, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, revealed that more than 1,000 homes were either damaged or destroyed by the earthquake.
The United States Geological Survey reported that the earthquake hit Lombok around 5:45 a.m. with a depth of 4.6 miles.
The earthquake in Lombok, which is only 140 miles from Bali, struck near the volcano Mount Rinjani.
The Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are still attempting to discern exactly how many residents and tourists have gone missing, while local police are assembling rescue teams to look for and provide aid to injured survivors of the quake.
A Lombok hotel owner, Jean Paul Volchaert, reported that the island gets struck by mild earthquakes almost every month, but Sunday’s earthquake was the strongest and most severe yet. “We were still sleeping when we felt the earthquake, so we rushed outside of our building,” Volchaert said. “There was about 20 seconds of shaking, the water in the pool was making quite large waves.”
“Luckily there was no damage to our building,” the owner of the Puncak Hotel continued, “our neighborhood was relatively untouched, but I know there have been casualties and a lot of damage in the north of the island.”
“We felt aftershocks for two hours after the initial earthquake,” Volchaert added, “so we’re worried that there could be more damage caused.”
While the Indonesian Red Cross tweeted that the Selbaum district was the most affected region on the island of Lombok, the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta instructed tourists and locals to refrain from hiking on Mount Rinjani until landslides had subdued.
PMI teams mount an immediate response as a 6.4 magnitude #earthquake strikes #Lombok island. We are checking people's needs, giving first aid and supporting search and rescue, especially in Sebalun distric, the worst affected areas. #PMISiapBantu pic.twitter.com/5ORZ1n9iwp
— Indonesian Red Cross (@palangmerah) July 29, 2018
Meanwhile, the Bali airport is still operating and remains completely functional.
Both Lombok and Bali are located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, which is defined as an area of increased seismic activity. According to CNN, the 25,000-mile “area stretches from the boundary of the Pacific Plate and the smaller plates such as the Philippine Sea plate to the Cocos and Nazca Plates that line the edge of the Pacific Ocean.”
Model Chrissy Teigen, who is currently vacationing in Bali with her family, tweeted on Sunday that she felt the earthquake, characterizing it as “long.”
