Earthquake Sulawesi, Indonesia – 6 people killed – a lot of villages still cut-off from aid due to blocked roads

Last update: August 20, 2012 at 3:11 pm by By Armand Vervaeck and James Daniell

Update 20/08 – 14:58 UTC
The following information should make the 08:58 information more complete (courtesy Jakarta Post)
Due to the area being a national park, the government has forbidden to from construct roads to provide access to the area. To reach the villages, one has to either walk for around six hours, or ride a motorcycle for around three hours. The area also has limited telecommunication access. For all these reasons helicopter deployment is super-urgent. Helicopters can easily distribute aid to the isolated quake victims.
– The Sulawesi Lindu earthquake has killed six people, damaged 1097 houses, seven places of worship, three schools and one government office. Dozens of people suffered minor injuries during the earthquake.

Update 20/08 – 08:58 UTC
– The death toll has unfortunately climbed to 6
– Some reports are talking about 1000+ houses damaged some severely
– The landslides blocking the main road have not been removed completely, making it impossible for Rescue and aid transports to reach a lot of villages (Indonesian reports do speak about dozens of settlements). The landslide area is about 10 km long.
– A lot of villages around the Lindu lake (also a National Park) are still cut off from civilization which means that a complete assessment of the situation has not been done yet and also means that the toll of this earthquake can further increase. The current account of dead, injured and damage is thus far from complete.
– Red Cross Indonesia has promised to send an helicopter on Tuesday … to reach these remote villages.
– The Indonesian army has a big fleet of helicopters. Deploying 5 or 10 helicopters when the weather allows it, would be a great peacefull task. Where are they waiting for ? (comment ER)

Image courtesy mediaindonesia.com

Very Important Update 19/08 – 22:00 UTC
BPBD, the government agency responsible for following up and managing disasters in Indonesia came with a long awaited first official assessment report. Unfortunately bad news.
– 4 people have been killed during this earthquake.
– 7 people were seriously injured
– 51 houses have been reported as severely damaged
The wordt impact occurred in 9 villages in 3 districts Kulawi (Namo, Bolapapu, Boladangko, Tangkulowi, and Saluwa), Lindu (Tomado) and Gumbasa (Pakuli, Tuva and Omu)
– The report is not yet complete as at least 10 landslides are still blocking the main road. Heavy equipment has been send to the landslide areas (bulldozers, trucks, etc)
– Victims with minor injuries have been treated in their respective villages.
– Buildings who have not been affected by the earthquake are used as shelters

Update 19/08 – 12:05 UTC
Avalanches occurred from kilometer 50 to kilometer 60 of on the main road to Kulawi  (border between the District and District Gumbasa Kulawi, Sigi Regency).

Update 19/08 – 12:05 UTC : a classic example of epicenter uncertainty
–  The image below made by our colleagues of eqarchives.wordpress.com  is showing what a difficult task it is to determine the location of the epicenter and accordingly the place to look at for SAR and AID workers to find the most damaged areas. Imagine that you are a rescue authority and that a massive earthquake strikes. Where to go to or to look at first. Telecommunications and power are down, so nobody can tell you what the exact situation of the earthquake is. Additionally, the seismological agencies are doing their best to provide the epicenter location as accurate as possible but they are differing often in tens of km’s for distant quakes, just like we have witnessed here in Sulawesi. Earthquake science is making big steps forward but is far from being 100% accurate. ER tends to give the benefit of the doubt for the local well organized seismological agencies, but as could be read below, also this is far from accurate as they are often nationally structured and as some equipment is installed and read locally, like in this case in Palu. The orange sign is an aftershock. We know that the buttons are hard to read, but the story behind the buttons is that they are far from accurate.
Based on the instruments which are monitored in Palu, the epicenter was located in the Sigi regency. BMKG matched the epicenter best (just north of the Lindu lake)

Epicenter location as reported by the different seismological agencies – image courtesy eqarchives.wordpress.com – Click on the map for the interactive version

Very important update 19/08 – 07:45 UTC (ongoing update):
– a 9 year old boy was killed during the earthquake (some (international) press is talking about 3 killed people, but this could not be confirmed locally at this moment
– 12 people have been seriously injured
– at least 40 houses have been seriously damaged or collapsed
– Houses have been seriously damaged houses in the following villages : Namo, Boladangko, Bolapapu and Tangkulowi  (Sigi district)
– There is still some confusion on where the epicenter was located of the mainshock. Soon after the earthquake epicenter was said to be in the Regency Parigi Moutong. After further investigation BMKG had admitted that the epicenter was located in the Sigi regency (sub-province Kulawi, Gumbasa and Lindu). the update has been reported by BMKG after that the data from the regional BMKG office at Palu was analyzed.
– 200 rescue workers have been mobilized to asses the damage in the villages and to help the people
– The power was off moments after the earth started to shake

for more information and updates, go to:   http://earthquake-report.com/2012/08/18/extremely-dangerous-shallow-earthquake-below-sulawesi-indonesia/