Archive forAugust, 2009

Strong quake strikes Indonesia’s Sumatra, 7 hurt

August 16, 2009 @ 3:22 pm · Filed under Earthquakes, Events

A strong 6.9-magnitude quake sparked panic in Indonesia's ...
afp.com

Sun Aug 16, 6:52 AM ET

A strong 6.9-magnitude quake sparked panic in Indonesia’s western Sumatra but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, the country’s geophysics agency said.


JAKARTA (AFP) – Seven people were injured after a strong, 6.9-magnitude quake struck Indonesia’s western Sumatra Sunday, an official said.

The epicentre of the quake, which struck at 2:38 pm (0738 GMT), was located 43 kilometres (29 miles) southeast of Siberut island off western Sumatra.

It was measured at a depth of 32 kilometres.

West Sumatra provincial health crisis centre chief Jasmarizal told AFP seven people were being treated in hospital for “light injuries” in Padang city on the west coast of Sumatra.

“Five people were injured when an escalator at a mall in north Padang collapsed. Two others were hurt when the fences of their homes gave way. They had light injuries like abrasions on their arms and legs,” he added.

There were no reports of casualties or damage on Siberut island, Jasmarizal said.

“But the residents there had fled to the mountains for safety,” he added.

The country’s geophysics agency’s technical chief Suharjono said no tsunami warning had been issued.

“It was a sea quake but there’s no potential of tsunami. We’ll only issue a warning if the magnitude is greater than seven,” he added.

Earlier, Suharjono said “people panicked in nearby cities, in Padang and Sibolga in Sumatra”.

“Siberut is not as developed as big cities but at such magnitude, brick houses without strong foundation could collapse,” he added.

Strong tremors could be felt for 10 minutes in Padang, south Padang city police official Andreas told AFP.

“Everyone panicked and ran out of their houses. But the situation is calmer now and people have gone back into their homes,” he added.

Police in the field were monitoring the situation but “so far, there’s no report of damage or casualty yet”, Andreas said.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.

Tags: Abrasions, Arms And Legs, Brick Houses, Crisis Centre, Epicentre, Health Crisis, Light Injuries, Magnitude Quake, Meetin, Pacific Ring Of Fire, Padang, Police Official, Provincial Health, Ring Of Fire, Siberut Island, Sibolga, Strong Foundation, Sun Aug, Tsunami Warning, West Sumatra

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Big quake hits off India’s Andamans, no tsunami

August 11, 2009 @ 1:24 am · Filed under Events

Mon Aug 10, 2009 8:44pm EDT

By Sanjit Kumar Roy

PORT BLAIR, India (Reuters) – A major earthquake of magnitude 7.6 struck in the Indian Ocean off India’s Andaman Islands early on Tuesday, but a tsunami alert for India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh was later canceled.

Three hours after the earthquake there were no reports of a tsunami or of any casualties from the tremor, officials said.

“We all ran out as fast as possible and have not gone back inside, fearing another quake. Everything was shaking, we are all very, very scared,” Subhasis Paul, who runs a provision store in Diglipur island in North Andaman, told Reuters by telephone.

“People are calling each other out of their homes and everyone is huddled together outside,” Paul said from Diglipur, about 300 km (185 miles) north of Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The small chain of islands lie hundreds of miles east of India in the Indian Ocean.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake, initially reported as a magnitude 7.7, struck at 1:55 a.m. (1955 GMT on Monday). It was relatively shallow, at a depth of 33 km (20.6 miles), and was centered 260 km (160 miles) north of Port Blair.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there could be a destructive wave along coasts up to 1,000 km (600 miles) from the epicenter, but it later withdrew its warning.

“Sea level readings indicate that a significant tsunami was not generated,” it said in a statement.

Officials at the tsunami alert center in southern India said chances of a tsunami were remote.

“The earthquake has not caused displacement of water necessary to generate a tsunami either in the deep sea or near coastal locations,” said Rajesh, a senior official at the Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services.

“We are monitoring the situation, but everything appears normal so far. It seems we have been lucky,” added Rajesh, who goes by one name.

A 7.6 magnitude quake is classified by the USGS as a major earthquake and is capable of widespread, heavy damage.

A massive quake in the Indian Ocean in 2004 caused a tsunami that killed some 228,000 people, the majority in the Indonesian province of Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra island.

WOKEN BY A JOLT

“I was on the balcony, and it felt very strange for a while, like my chair was leaning to one side,” said Reuters correspondent Martin Petty in Bangkok. “So I got out of there sharpish. Aftershocks went on for a good few minutes.”

In Indonesia, a meteorology agency official said his agency was monitoring Aceh, but there had been no reports of a tsunami.

“I was waken up by the jolt,” said Kyaw Min, a resident of Yangon in Myanmar.

In the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, officials said there was no news of any immediate loss of life or damage.

“We have patrol parties everywhere possible and everything appears normal. We are asking people not to panic and return to their homes,” P. Karunakaran, a police superintendent in charge of the North and Middle Andaman region said by telephone from Mayabandar, 270 km (165 miles) north of Port Blair.

(Additional reporting by Ed Davies in Jakarta, Bappa Majumdar in New Delhi, Martin Petty in Bangkok and Aung Hla Tun in Yangon; Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Dean Yates)

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Tags: Andaman And Nicobar, Andaman And Nicobar Islands, Andaman Islands, Coastal Locations, Destructive Wave, Early On Tuesday, East Of India, National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration, North Andaman, Pacific Tsunami Warning, Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, Port Blair India, Provision Store, Quake Hits, Sanjit, Southern India, Tsunami Alert, Tsunami Warning Center, U S Geological Survey, U S National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration

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Earthquake Hits Indian Ocean, Tsunami Warning Issued

August 10, 2009 @ 9:41 pm · Filed under Events

By Mark Tannenbaum

Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) — A magnitude-7.6 earthquake struck the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean today, spurring a tsunami warning for a half-dozen countries in the region.

The quake struck at a depth of 33 kilometers (21 miles) at about 1:55 a.m. local time and was centered 260 kilometers north of Port Blair in the Andaman Islands, or about 825 kilometers west of Bangkok, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

A tsunami warning will be in effect for the next one to three hours for parts of India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said a potentially destructive tsunami had been generated near the quake epicenter. No other details were provided.

A magnitude-9.1 earthquake that hit off the coast of Aceh in northern Sumatra in December 2004 triggered a tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean, leaving more than 229,000 dead or missing from Southeast Asia to eastern Africa.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Tannenbaum in New York at mtannen@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: August 10, 2009 17:17 EDT

Tags: Aceh, Andaman Islands, August 10, Dozen Countries, Eastern Africa, Epicenter, Indian Ocean Tsunami, Islands In The Indian Ocean, Japan Meteorological Agency, Last Updated August, Magnitude 9, Northern Sumatra, Pacific Tsunami Warning, Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, Port Blair, S Pacific, Southeast Asia, Tannenbaum, Tsunami Warning Center, U S Geological Survey

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Typhoon pummels Taiwan; 600 missing in mudslide

August 10, 2009 @ 3:21 pm · Filed under Hurricanes

By ANNIE HUANG, Associated Press Writer Annie Huang, Associated Press Writer – 31 mins ago

TAIPEI, Taiwan – A typhoon-spawned mudslide engulfed a mountain village in southern Taiwan, burying up to 600 people, a police official and a rescued villager said Monday.

Typhoon Morakot dumped up to 80 inches (two meters) of rain on some communities over the weekend before moving on to China, where it forced the evacuation of nearly 1 million people along the east coast and left at least six dead. Earlier it had struck the Philippines, leaving at least 22 dead.

It has now been downgraded to a tropical storm.

Speaking to The Associated Press, a Taiwanese police official who identified himself by his surname, Wang, said about 400 people are still unaccounted for after Sunday morning’s mudslide in Shiao Lin village. He said about 100 people have been rescued by military helicopter or avoided the slide.

One of the rescued villagers, Lin Chien-chung, told the United Evening News that he believes as many as 600 people were still buried by the mud.

“The mudslide covered a large part of the village, including a primary school and many homes,” he was quoted as saying. “A part of the mountain above us just fell on the village.”

It was not immediately possible to reconcile the differing estimates of people missing.

The village was still cut off from the outside world Monday evening, after flood waters destroyed a bridge about eight miles (12 kilometers) away. Military helicopters have dropped provisions in the area and rescued survivors.

Taiwan’s official death toll from Morakot stands at 14. Another 51, not including the people in Shiao Lin, are listed as missing.

Morakot, meaning emerald in Thai, slammed into China’s Fujian province Sunday afternoon carrying heavy rain and winds of 74 miles (119 kilometers) per hour, according to the China Meteorological Administration. At least one child died after a house collapsed in Zhejiang province.

By early Monday, the storm packed winds of 52 miles (83 kilometers) per hour, it said.

Hundreds of villages and towns were flooded and more than 2,000 houses had collapsed, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Four people died in Zhejiang, one died in Fujian and one died in Jiangxi province, Xinhua said. It said another three were missing.

Village officials in Zhejiang rode bicycles to hand out drinking water and instant noodles to residents stranded by flooding, while rescuers tried to reach eight sailors on a cargo ship blown onto a reef off Fujian, Xinhua reported.

In Japan, meanwhile, Typhoon Etau slammed into the west coast Monday. Twelve people were killed in raging floodwaters and landslides, and 10 others were missing, police said.

___

Associated Press writers Gillian Wong in Beijing and Shino Yuasa in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Tags: Associated Press, Chien, China Meteorological Administration, Death Toll, Early Monday, Eight Miles, Flood Waters, Fujian Province, Heavy Rain, Kilometers Per Hour, Military Helicopter, Military Helicopters, Mudslide, Official Death, Police Official, Southern Taiwan, Taipei Taiwan, United Evening News, Villager, Zhejiang Province

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