East Seram's Earthquake Damages Several Buildings: BPBD

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Central Maluku Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) has revealed that the 5.6-magnitude earthquake that rocked East Seram District's area in Maluku Province on Saturday had damaged several buildings but there were no fatalities owing to this quake.

Following the earthquake which was followed by 13 aftershocks, no residents took refuge because the quake did not potentially trigger tsunami, the agency's head, Bob Rahmat, told Antara who contacted him from Ambon, the capital of Maluku Province, on Sunday.

Rahmat urged locals to stay calm and did not let themselves get provoked by rumors and misleading information. So far, the agency noted that five houses got damaged. The earthquake also damaged a water storage and a local company's building.

The district's electricity supply remained normal in the aftermath of this earthquake whose epicenter was located around 68 kilometers away northwest of Bula city in East Seram District at a depth of 12 kilometers.

Earthquakes regularly rock various parts of Indonesia due to the fact that the country lies on the Circum-Pacific Belt, also known as the Ring of Fire, where several tectonic plates meet and cause frequent volcanic and seismic activities.

On Feb. 6, 2020, for instance, a 6.1-magnitude earthquake jolted the Indonesian Island of Miangas in North Sulawesi Province at 08:40 p.m. local time, prompting many residents to rush out of their homes in search of safety.

One of the deadliest earthquakes in Indonesia that occurred over these past two years was the one that struck several areas of Centra Sulawesi Province.

The 7.4-magnitude earthquake which was followed by tsunami that hit the areas of Palu city and the districts of Donggala, Paringi Moutong, and Sigi on Sept. 28, 2018 claimed 2,102 lives, injured 4,612, and rendered 680 others missing.

A total of 68,451 homes were seriously damaged, and 78,994 people were displaced.

Due to a large number of rotting corpses, the authorities and humanitarian workers decided to bury them in mass graves.

Meanwhile, material losses inflicted by the twin deadly disasters were estimated to reach Rp15.29 trillion.

The provincial capital of Palu took the brunt of the disaster, with material damage and losses recorded at Rp7.6 trillion, or 50 percent of the total estimate, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).

The material damage and losses in Sigi district were recorded at Rp4.9 trillion, or 32.1 percent, Donggala district at Rp2.1 trillion, or 13.8 percent, and Parigi Moutong district at Rp631 billion, or 4.1 percent.

The material damage in the four affected areas reached an estimated Rp13.27 trillion, while the material losses reached approximately Rp2.02 trillion, the agency revealed in October 2018.

ANTARA