The Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) is on high alert following a magnitude 7.6 earthquake off the eastern coast of Indonesia’s Aceh province that claimed at least three lives and injured dozens more.
The quake was most keenly felt on the island of Simeulue. Ibnu Abbas, the deputy head of PMI’s Simeulue branch office says that 26 people in the town of Simelue Utara and 25 people in Simuelue Barat were injured as they rushed to safety.
“Some people were injured as when they jumped from buildings,” he said.
Red Cross volunteers mobilized
PMI volunteers across the island were quickly mobilized and were involved in helping to evacuate some of those injured to nearby health facilities. In addition, teams of volunteers have also been visiting communities to look for damage and to carry out initial needs assessments.
The Aceh chapter of PMI has been in close contact with the Simeulue branch, and both offices have been in regular contact with the organization’s headquarters in Jakarta.
Another reminder
The International Federation’s special representative for tsunami recovery, Jerry Talbot, is currently visiting ongoing Red Cross Red Crescent tsunami operations. He was on Nias Island, about 200 kilometres south east of Simeulue, when the quake hit and he felt the ground shudder.
“The quake was another reminder of how vulnerable communities in this country are to natural hazards,” he said.
“It underlines, yet again, how important it is that we do everything we can to make communities more resilient and better able to handle these types of events.”
Building community resilience has been a fundamental premise of the Red Cross Red Crescent tsunami recovery operation. More than 95 per cent of the houses being built by the Red Cross Red Crescent in tsunami affected Aceh meet or exceed local hazard standards. A significant amount of effort has also been focused on developing a culture of risk awareness in communities.
For more information on ongoing tsunami recovery efforts, visit www.ifrc.org/tsunami
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Injured villagers received a treatment outside a hospital in Simeulue Island. In 20 February 2008 a 7.5 magnitude quake struck off Indonesia's Aceh province killing at least three people and damaging buildings on the nearby island of Simeulue, a local official said. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer courtesy of www.alertnet.org
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