SIKKA
\nAround 5,000 people have been evacuated after a magnitude-7.7 earthquake smashed an area in eastern Indonesia, killing at least 51, blocking roads and causing landslides, authorities said on Sunday.
\nThirty-six people were seriously injured in the Saturday morning quake in East Nusa Tenggara province, while 77 had minor injuries, Deputy Health Minister Benjamin Paulus Octavianus told a televised meeting. The quake, followed by some 341 aftershocks, is the Southeast Asian nation\u2019s worst in years. Hundreds died \u200cafter a 2022 \u200cearthquake in West Java.
\nMore than 3,300 \u200cpeople in the Sikka region self-evacuated or were stranded in a sports arena, said the disaster mitigation agency BNPB. Some Sikka residents were stranded outside collapsed homes under a makeshift tent made out of tarp, while some people received treatment in a tent outside a hospital in the port town of Maumere.
\n\u201cAlmost all of Sikka\u2019s residents didn\u2019t dare stay indoors, so \u200cthey slept on a porch \u200cor a tent outside,\u201d Simon Subandi, deputy regent of Sikka, \u200ctold news channel KompasTV. More than 3,500 military and police \u200cofficers have been deployed to the region, Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said in a statement.
\nRescuers were able to access parts of Maumere that had been blocked by landslides, Indonesia\u2019s search \u200cand rescue agency said. Most of those missing were trapped under rubble, and more than 1,300 homes were damaged, BNPB said.
\nTwenty petrol stations were not operational due to power outages, said state energy firm Pertamina. The East Nusa Tenggara government is considering declaring an emergency for the province, BNPB said, which would allow authorities to mobilize resources and funding.
\nThe area of the quake was hit in 1992 by a magnitude-7.5 earthquake that caused extensive destruction, Indonesia\u2019s geophysics agency said. Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of 290 million people, straddles the \u201cPacific Ring of Fire,\u201d a seismically active zone where tectonic plates meet, triggering frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SIKKA Around 5,000 people have been evacuated after a magnitude-7.7 earthquake smashed an area in eastern Indonesia, killing at least 51, blocking roads and causing landslides, authorities said on Sunday. Thirty-six people were seriously injured in the Saturday morning quake in East Nusa Tenggara province, while 77 had minor injuries, Deputy Health Minister Benjamin Paulus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-562327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n