TSUNAMI IMPACT: New Quake Sees Relief Agencies Rushing Aid to Island

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Sonny Inbaraj

BANGKOK, Mar 29 2005 (IPS) - Relief agencies are scrambling to make their way to the Indonesian island of Nias, where over 2,000 people are feared dead, after a massive overnight earthquake off the coast of Indonesia spread fear and panic across Asia that another killer tsunami was on its way.

Relief agencies are scrambling to make their way to the Indonesian island of Nias, where over 2,000 people are feared dead, after a massive overnight earthquake off the coast of Indonesia spread fear and panic across Asia that another killer tsunami was on its way.

”We are preparing for emergency supplies to be delivered and our helicopters are now ready to take off to the Nias chain of islands,” Bekele Geleta, South-east Asia’s head of delegation for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told IPS.

”The Indonesian Red Cross is confident that it has enough relief supplies in Sumatra. Red Cross helicopters will be departing soon, focusing on the islands in the Nias archipelago. A Red Cross Cessna aircraft will also be departing Sumatra’s capital Medan to check the coastline,” added Geleta.

Indonesia’s Vice-President Jusuf Kalla told the ‘British Broadcasting Corporation’ he feared up to 2,000 people may have died on the island of Nias, not far from the epicentre. But he said this figure was based on an assessment of damaged buildings, not a body count.

Around 80 percent of buildings had been affected in the town of Gunungsitoli, he added. Local officials said earlier about 300 people were feared dead.

”Communications to Nias part of the Indonesian coastline has been cut. And it’s really important that we try to re-establish it within the next 24 hours,” Geleta pointed out.

An earthquake of magnitude 8.7 on the Richter scale struck Northern Sumatra on Monday night, and its tremors were felt as far as Malaysia and Thailand. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck about 30 kilometers under the seabed, some 250 kilometers south-east of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province on Sumatra island.

It was centered just 177 kilometers south-west of Dec. 26’s 9.0-magnitude temblor – the world’s most powerful in 40 years – that spawned killer waves killing at least 290,000 in a dozen Indian Ocean rim countries.

”This is not an aftershock – this is what is called ‘a great earthquake’ – one that ranges from eight to nine on the Richter scale,” said Jan Egeland, the U.N.’s emergency relief coordinator and under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs.

Ken Hackett, president of the U.S.-based Catholic Relief Services was in Medan when the earthquake struck Monday night.

”We were awakened shortly after 11 p.m. local time. We felt a strong shaking in our hotel and were evacuated briefly before being allowed to return to our rooms,” he said in an interview.

”To give you a sense of the intensity of the earthquake, Medan is located on the other side of the island from the epicenter. The shock waves had to pass through a large mountain range to reach Medan,” added Hackett.

”As I talk to you, the sun has not yet risen. We don’t yet know the extent of the damage caused by this latest earthquake. But we do know that a wave of fear has been unleashed, as if the residents along the ruined coastal communities are reliving the tsunami again,” he told IPS.

According to reports from Indonesia’s Aceh province – where more than 126,000 people died, while at least 93,000 others remain missing from the Dec. 26 tsunami – Acehnese grabbed small bags of clothes as they fled their tents and homes. Many were crying and jumping into cars and onto motorbikes and pedicabs to head for higher ground.

In Thailand, the 8.7 magnitude earthquake was also felt in the southern Thai island resort of Phuket as well as some high rises in Bangkok.

Residents and tourists on Phuket’s Patong Beach rushed out of their houses and hotels to take any vehicles they could find to get away from the beachfront.

”I can hear cars roaring everywhere. The streets just turn into mess. Now I have to rush out of the hotel,” a local TV reporter said in her live report.

More than 5,300 are confirmed dead in the December tsunami. More than 1,700 foreigners from a total of 36 countries are among the dead with over 2,900 still missing.

In Malaysia, tens of thousands of people rushed out of their houses and hotels when the earthquake hit off the coast of Sumatra just after midnight local time.

Penang, businessman Lee Beng Tatt, who stays on the 15th floor of a condominium told ‘The Star’ daily he was in the bathroom when he noticed the water in the toilet bowl swirling about.

”The swirling became more intense until some of the toilet bowl water spilt out. My wife, my son and I quickly rushed out of our apartment and made our way to the ground floor.”

Penang state police chief Deputy Commissioner Christopher Wan said a tsunami alert had been issued to those staying along the state’s coastline as a precaution.

”The northern region marine police has also issued warnings to fishermen out at sea. Marine police boats have also been deployed so that they could monitor the situation from sea,” he told ‘The Star’.

”Police personnel are on stand-by in the island’s coastline. We do not want to be caught off guard like the last time,” he said.

When the Dec. 26 tsunami struck, fishing villages, squatter settlements and shops along the island’s coast were almost wiped out. The death toll was 68, while 299 people sustained injuries.