Magnitude-7.7 quake hits off coast of Indonesia, killing at least 20 - NBC News

A magnitude-7.7 earthquake hit off the coast of Indonesia in the eastern Flores region, the United States Geological Survey reported on Friday. The epicenter was 42 miles north-northwest of the city of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara province. At least 47 people have been killed, the ​National Disaster Management Agency said Saturday. Rescue teams have yet to reach Nagekeo, the region ‌closest to the epicenter, after landslides blocked roads and disrupted communications, officials said. “The quake was massive, the shock was so strong,” Nona, a 51-year-old resident of Talibura, a village in East Nusa Tenggara, told Reuters. “There were 13 of us inside the house and we all ran to save ourselves.” Earlier, ​rescuers in the port town of Maumere found 20 dead, six injured and two trapped under the rubble, ⁠said Fathur Rahman, head of the city’s rescue agency. Maumere is the main town in Sikka Regency on Flores Island in the east of ​Indonesia’s vast archipelago. Residents remain trapped in several buildings in earthquake-affected areas, with reports of landslides blocking several roads. Preliminary data ​showed 157 homes were heavily damaged, 41 moderately damaged and 148 lightly damaged. Damage was also reported at 87 schools, 18 health facilities, five places of worship and six office ‌buildings, along ⁠with other infrastructure. The quake was felt across much of Flores Island, with reports indicating heavy damage. Yohanna Embu, a resident of Sikka Regency, said a number of buildings were damaged by the strong shaking and panicked people ran to higher ground. “Many buildings here were damaged. ... I saw that the waiting room at the port terminal in Maumere had collapsed,” she said. Indonesian authorities initially issued a tsunami warning for parts of East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi provinces, and urged residents to stay away from beaches and riverbanks, and residents on the coastline to move to higher ground. The agency located the shallow undersea quake near Flores Island. The initial quake was followed by two aftershocks. Students at St. Peter Major Seminary in Sikka who were attending morning Mass fled in panic when the roof of an assembly hall collapsed, said the Rev. Guidelbertus Tanga, rector of the seminary, which is known locally as Ritapiret Seminary on the predominantly Catholic island of Flores. “Our students and nuns ran out in panic beneath a collapsing roof,” Tanga said, “At least one priest suffered a broken leg after jumping from the second floor of a building during the quake.” Separately, Australia’s tsunami warning center said the undersea earthquake will have “no tsunami threat to the Australian mainland, islands or territories.” Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because of its location on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. In December 1992, a magnitude-7 earthquake caused a tsunami that killed about 2,500 people on the southeastern island of Flores, part of a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. The latest quake comes after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake rocked western Colombia on Monday, causing widespread damage. In June, deadly back-to-back earthquakes, with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, killed more than 6,000 people in Venezuela, according to government figures.