Over 2,000 feared dead by earthquake off Sumatra
Pakistan Times Monitoring Report

JAKARTA (Indonesia): Indonesia’s Vice President Yusuf Kalla said Tuesday he estimated that up to 2,000 people may have perished in a powerful earthquake off Sumatra island, reiterating an earlier statement.

Kalla’s is by far the most pessimistic assessment of the situation on the islands of Nias and Simeulue, which were hardest hit by Monday’s 8.7 magnitude quake. Current official death tolls stand at less than 400.

“The human victims counted so far stand at around 300, but it is estimated that there will be between 1,000 and 2,000 as there are still a lot among the ruins who have not yet been found and also those in several small islands,” Kalla told reporters.

Kalla was quoted by Kompas newspaper’s website as saying that the process of evacuating the victims was hampered by a lack of earth-moving equipment. He estimated it would take one week to clear the rubble.

He said the governor of North Sumatra province had reported that there were 50 dead victims recorded in Simeulue.

Recap

The National Coordinating Agency for Disaster and Refugee Handling said that by 8:00 am Wednesday, the number of confirmed dead stood at 333. Agus Mendrofa, the deputy district chief of Nias, said he believed the toll would reach 500.

Meanwhile an Indonesian scientist warned Wednesday that an earthquake measuring as high as 9.0 on the Richter scale could hit regions off Sumatra and trigger another tsunami.

“Every earthquake adds seismic pressure in nearby areas,” Murti Matoyo of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences was quoted by the state Antara news agency as saying.

“The potential for an earthquake in the west of Sumatra has increased due to the recent quake,” he said.

Hundreds were killed when an 8.7-magnitude earthquake struck off the west coast of Sumatra late Monday. Most of the victims were on the islands of Nias and Simeulue.

Matoyo said he believed the Mentawai island chain, which liea to the southeast of Nias, was at heightened risk The December quake triggered a tsunami that left at least 126,000 dead and more than 93,000 missing in Indonesia. The waves also killed thousands of people in Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, the Maldives and Malaysia.

Matoyo’s comments echo warnings by prominent seismologist Mustapha Meghraoui, of the Institute for Planetary Physics in Strasbourg, who said the two recent disasters could be the start of a “cascade” of quakes.

Widespread fires on Wednesday hit the main town on the Indonesian island of Simeulue where a massive earthquake left at least 25 dead and major destruction, an official said. The fires in the town of Sinabang razed dozens of buildings and houses already damaged by Monday’s 8.7 magnitude earthquake which struck off the west coast of Sumatra island, district chief Darmili said.●