Thousands of individuals in Flores, Indonesia, were still awaiting assistance on Monday following a severe earthquake that resulted in a minimum of 68 fatalities, over 200 injuries, and extensive damage to numerous residences and structures.
Residents of Flores, located in East Nusa Tenggara province, spent the day grieving for the victims and eagerly anticipating aid to reach communities that were isolated due to the catastrophic quake. During Indonesia’s Independence Day ceremony in Jakarta, President Prabowo Subianto urged participants to offer prayers for those impacted by disasters in East Nusa Tenggara, leading a moment of silence to honor the nation’s heroes of independence.
The earthquake, which struck with a depth of 10 kilometers in East Nusa Tenggara province early Saturday morning, caused damage to over 1,300 homes, displacing around 5,000 individuals into temporary shelters, with 213 sustaining injuries, according to the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB). Over 1,500 aftershocks were recorded by authorities through Monday, although only a small fraction was perceptible to residents.
The governor of the province declared a state of emergency lasting 14 days on Sunday. Aid operations faced logistical hurdles, delaying deliveries to severely affected areas. Nearly 1,500 military and police personnel, aided by 10 aircraft, were deployed to distribute 275 tonnes of relief supplies across the disaster zone.
Aid workers were able to reach Palue Island, situated close to the quake’s epicenter, after a challenging journey through landslide-affected terrain. Residents of the island, isolated for days, were in urgent need of assistance. Indonesia, with its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” remains vulnerable to seismic activities and volcanic eruptions due to its geography.
In the past, Indonesia has witnessed devastating natural disasters, including the 1992 earthquake and tsunami in Flores that claimed around 2,500 lives, the 2004 Sumatra earthquake and ensuing tsunami that resulted in approximately 230,000 fatalities across multiple countries, and the 2018 Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami that killed over 4,400 people.