State of Emergency for Aceh`s Pidie Jaya Effective until Dec. 20

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Presidential chief of staff Teten Masduki, who has been assigned by President Joko Widodo to meet the victims of earthquake in Pidie Jaya, Aceh, has confirmed that the state of emergency for the region will be effective until December 20, 2016. It was also determined that the earthquake is not classified as a national disaster.

“It’s a local disaster,” Teten told Tempo on the sidelines of President Joko Widodo’s visit to Zainoel Abidin Hospital in Aceh to meet quake victims yesterday.

Teten explained that Government has set the earthquake Pidie Jaya as local disaster based on the extent of damage after earthquake. “The earthquake only affected three districts, namely Pidie, Pidie Jaya and Bireun, even though there are a lot of victims,” he said.

Having classified it as local disaster, the Government will still provide disaster relief, Teten said. Among disaster relief to be provided are from the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) and the Social Affairs Ministry.

Data from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (GMKG) show that the 6.5 magnitude earthquake in Pidie Jaya occurred at 5:36 am local time on Wednesday, December 7. The epicenter of the quake was at a latitude of 5.25 degrees north and a longitude of 96.24 degrees east, 106 kilometers southeast of Banda Aceh City, at a depth of 15 kilometers.

The BNPB reported that 102 had been killed, one missing, 136 wounded, 616 suffered minor injuries and 10,029 left homeless.

ISTMAN M.P.