The death toll from the 7.7-magnitude earthquake in Indonesia’s Flores Island has reached 70, with over 40,000 people displaced and more than 1,100 injured amid constant aftershocks.
JAKARTA: The number of people displaced and injured by a powerful earthquake three days ago has jumped significantly, emergency officials said on Tuesday, with at least 40,000 people living in temporary shelters.
The death toll from the 7.7-magnitude quake that hit Flores Island in Indonesia’s east on Saturday also rose to 70 after two more fatalities were confirmed.
More than 40,000 people were now listed as displaced by the quake, according to the national disaster mitigation agency, BNPB, a sharp jump from the figure of 12,800 provided on Monday.
At least 1,100 people were also now listed as injured, an increase of more than tenfold from just a day earlier.
The quake damaged almost 12,000 homes across several towns in Flores, where a BNPB spokesman said many residents were refusing to return home as hundreds of aftershocks rattle the island.
“The number of displaced people does not reflect the extent of damage to houses, but rather the psychological impact experienced by residents,” spokesman Berton Suar Pelita Panjaitan told a news conference.
More than 2,100 aftershocks have been recorded since Saturday, including 70 strong enough to be felt by residents, he said.
More government aid began arriving on Monday.
“Essential supplies have been delivered to residents in need by land, sea and air,” Berton said, adding that evacuees still require food, clean water, tents and sanitation facilities.
The BNPB said more than 100 tonnes of relief supplies had been delivered to the island since Saturday.
National Police chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo said separately that police had also distributed nearly 250 tonnes of aid, including food, medicine, clothing, generators and other supplies.
Indonesia frequently experiences earthquakes because it lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, a zone of intense seismic and volcanic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific Ocean.
In 2004, a powerful 9.1-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Sumatra triggered a tsunami that killed about 220,000 people across the region, including around 170,000 in Indonesia.
