Earthquake, Tsunami Hits Indonesia
A tsunami up to two meters high hit a small city on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Friday after a major 7.5 quake struck offshore, collapsing buildings and washing a vessel ashore, but officials could provide no information on casualties.
The quake hit as dusk fell and communications were down and the airport closed, making it impossible to assess the damage to life and property, officials said.
National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said communications had been cut both in the city of Palu, a sleepy but growing tourist resort, and the nearby fishing town of Donggala, closest to the epicenter of the quake 80 km (50 miles) away.
Video lanjutan detik air laut naik di Palu Barat sesaat setelah gempa besar 7,7 SR petang tadi.#palu #Donggala #prayfordonggala #prayforpalu pic.twitter.com/8rfyaBdfjl
— IG : Daeng Info (@Daeng_Info) September 28, 2018
Officials hope to be able to gauge the scale of the damage at daybreak after the strongest of a series of earthquakes that continued late into the evening.
More than 600,000 people live in Palu and Donggala.
“The 1.5- to two-meter tsunami has receded,” Dwikorita Karnawati, who heads Indonesia’s meteorology and geophysics agency, BMKG, told Reuters. “It ended. The situation is chaotic, people are running on the streets and buildings collapsed. There is a ship washed ashore.”
BMKG had earlier issued a tsunami warning, but lifted it within the hour.
Amateur footage shown by local TV stations, which could not immediately be authenticated by Reuters, showed waters crashing into houses along Palu’s shoreline.
The national search and rescue agency will deploy a large ship and helicopters to aid with the operation, said agency chief Muhammad Syaugi, adding that he had not been able to contact his team in Palu.
Palu, hit by a 6.2 magnitude quake in 2005 which killed one person, is a tourist resort at the end of a narrow bay famous for its beaches and water sports.
Donggala as a 7.7 magnitude #earthquake with #tsunami warning occured recently in north of #Palu Sulawesi . #PrayForDonggala 🙏🏼🇮🇩 pic.twitter.com/vcx83UtOlC
— Zabihullah Najafi (@zabinajafi) September 28, 2018
In 2004, an earthquake off the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra triggered a tsunami across the Indian Ocean, killing 226,000 people in 13 countries, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia.
Some people took to Twitter saying they could not contact loved ones. “My family in Palu is unreachable,” Twitter user @noyvionella said.
Palu airport was closed.
Another video has come. Tsunami hit Palu City. #Gempa #Earthquake #Tsunami #Palu #Donggala #PrayForIndonesia #PrayForPalu #PrayForIndonesia #PrayForSulawesi
Video taken by a fisherman / sailorman that his boat hit the beach by tsunami near Palu city pic.twitter.com/lqhf2fEuWY— Anggunesia (@Anggunesia) September 28, 2018
The area was hit by a lighter quake earlier in the day, which destroyed some houses, killing one person and injuring at least 10 in Donggala, authorities said.
The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude of the second quake at a strong 7.5, after first saying it was 7.7.
“The (second) quake was felt very strongly, we expect more damage and more victims,” Nugroho said.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and is regularly hit by earthquakes.
#UPDATE M7.5 #earthquake in Indonesia's #Sulawesi island causes up to 2 meters Tsunami, but waters have receded; no reports of deaths yet, Reuters reports, citing officials https://t.co/r6t0c8vAAx pic.twitter.com/O9iL3iO045
— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) September 28, 2018
A series of earthquakes in July and August killed nearly 500 people on the holiday island of Lombok, hundreds of kilometers southwest of Sulawesi.
(Additional reporting by Fransiska Nangoy, Fanny Potkin and Jessica Damiana; Editing by Nick Macfie)
theweathernetwork.com
Reuters News agency
Headline Image Credit: Express UK