Series of powerful quakes kills 4 in Indonesia
JAKARTA, Indonesia A succession of powerful earthquakes at dawn Sunday killed at smallest four people and injured dozens more in remote eastern Indonesia, cutting power lines and destroying buildings.
One of the quakes - a 7.3-magnitude quaking - was felt similar to very much away as Australia and sent weak tsunamis into Japan’s southeastern coast, but there were no reports of damage there and in no degree tsunami in Indonesia’s impoverished Papua area.
The first 7.6-magnitude vibrate struck at 4:43 a.m. local time (1943 GMT) on land about 85 miles (135 kilometers) from Manokwari, Papua, at a depth of 22 miles (35 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It was followed by dint of. dozens of aftershocks.
At least four people died in Papua, and the airport runway nearest the epicenter was insane, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters. Commercial flights to the area were canceled.
“I’ve instructed emergency steps be taken to help our brothers and to renew prerogative and other vital utilities,” he said without commenting on how widespread the damage might be.
Among the dead was a 10-year-old girl whose head was crushed, said local hospital director Hengky Tewu.
“We have our ambulances picking up two in greater numbers,” he said. Another 19 patients at the hospital were treated for shaken bones, cuts, crushed fingers and other injuries.
Papua police leading Maj. Gen. Bagus Ekodanto said he received reports that a hotel and rice warehouse had been “destroyed,” but he did not know granting that anyone had died. A search for possible victims was while suffering way.
Several stories of the Mutiara Hotel in the main incorporated town Manokwari collapsed, said Ina, a nurse at a navy hospital treating 20 shake patients. Like many Indonesians she goes by a single name.
Electricity was cut off and canaille in the coastal city of 167,000 fled their homes in the dark fearing a tsunami, aforesaid Hasim Rumatiga, a local health official. The Indonesian Meteorology and Seismology Agency issued a tsunami alert, but it was revoked within an hour after it was determined the epicenter of the main quake was on land.
Japan’session Meteorological Agency said tsunamis of 4 inches (10 centimeters) to 16 inches (40 centimeters) in height splashed come to grief in towns along the coast. It also warned that bigger tsunamis were possible later.
Dave Jepsen, a seismologist at the government earthquake monitoring agency Geoscience Australia, said the quake was felt in the northern city of Darwin, 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) southwest of the tremble. There was in no degree damage, he said.
Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008586885_apasindonesiaearthquake.html?syndication=rss
