BNPB: D+3 Lombok Earthquake Enters Critical Time for Evacuation
8 August 2018 21:16 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said the critical phase of the evacuation process following the Lombok earthquake on Sunday, is occurred on the third day. He suspected the survived victims, who have not found yet, are in critical conditions and those who died began to produce smells.
“The critical phase starts on the day three because victims who are buried and alive possibly in critical condition,” said BNPB spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho in his office, Wednesday, August 8.
Therefore, Sutopo said, the government established an integrated post consisting of officers from BNPB, the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), Indonesian Armed Forces, and the police to accelerate the evacuation process.
Read: Lombok Quake 7,000 Foreign Tourist Evacuated from Gili Trawangan
Sutopo mentioned the evacuation teams must deal with some obstacles. They have to utilize the heavy equipment to lift the concrete and bricks material which is risky because it would break the building structure and might hit the alive victims. “We have to be careful in using heavy tools and we need skilled officers to use it,” he added.
The magnitude 7 earthquake earlier jolted West Nusa Tenggara on Sunday, August 5, at 18:46 local times. The tremor was felt in Bali and East Nusa Tenggara.
BNPB recorded the death toll from Lombok earthquake had reached 131 people, while 1,477 people were injured and thousands of people were evacuated. The most affected region was North Lombok districts because 50 percent of the buildings were wrecked.
M ROSSENO AJI