A heavy budget. There are 48 confirmed victims of the 7.7 magnitude earthquake which hit the Indonesian island of Flores at 4.58am on Saturday (local time), with its epicenter in the sea, off the coast. According to initial estimates, over 900 homes and hundreds of other buildings were seriously damaged by the earthquake and 341 aftershocks, the National Disaster Management Agency said. Around 5,000 people fled their homes, thousands of people were displaced.
In some areas the population has remained without electricity and telecommunications, and at least one emergency access route is still impassable. “We need food, water, medicine and diapers for the children,” Umri, a resident of the village of Nangahale who together with other people took refuge on a hill and is now afraid to return home, told AFP on Sunday morning.
According to Berton Suar Pelita Panjaitan, spokesperson for the national disaster management agency, the survivors urgently need assistance in the form of emergency tents, food, medicines, blankets, camp cots, mats, drinking water and power generators. In 1992 the island of Flores was hit by another devastating earthquake of magnitude 7.7 which triggered a tsunami. The toll was 2,500 victims.