Indonesia natural disaster kills at least 97

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami remains fresh in the memories of many in Aceh.

“We immediately ran outside the house but it crumbled”.

“We were afraid a tsunami can come at any time”.

The family’s house didn’t collapse but the homes of some neighbours did.

The army chief in Indonesia’s Aceh province says 54 people have died in the quake that struck early Wednesday, more than doubling the death toll.

At least 97 people were killed and scores injured when a strong quake struck western Indonesia Wednesday and flattened hundreds of homes and mosques, with officials warning the death toll would likely rise.

More than 600 people are injured and over 200 buildings are damaged, dozens of which have been destroyed completely.

Forecasters said there was no danger of a tsunami as a result of the quake.

Humanitarian organization CARE said it would was leading a joint assessment mission of four global aid organizations.

“The number of victims may increase because they are trapped under debris”.

Heavy equipment is being used to search for survivors, but Puteh Manaf, head of the local disaster management agency, said that more people were needed to help because some staff were busy helping their own families. The results reported several hundred injured, including 73 serious.

Amid the trembling, people rushed out of their homes in panic and strong shocks were felt across Pidie Jaya.

“The death toll could still rise”, he said.

“I am in the hospital now”. Buildings shook in the provincial capital Banda Aceh. Numerous injured were treated in hospital corridors and hastily erected disaster tents, the agency reported.

According to ABC News, The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit at 5:03 a.m. local time on Wednesday morning, about 6 miles north of the north Aceh town of Reuleut.

The military has deployed 740 personnel to Aceh.

The ERAT’s primary function is to provide rapid assessment and determine the critical resources (e.g. tents, medical kits, and sanitation facilities) required for the areas affected by the quake, said the SCDF in its statement. Indonesia’s own National Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency also noted the quake struck the Pidie Jaya Regency in the Aceh Special region at a depth of six miles. There was no tsunami threat to the Australian mainland.

Unfortunately, the Aceh Province is not new to natural disasters given Indonesia’s location in the Ring of Fire – a line encircling the entire Pacific Rim where large geological events occur frequently. The figure has fluctuated as authorities identify the dead across the region. The 2004 quake and tsunami killed a total of 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

Aceh suffered massive destruction in 2004 when a huge undersea quake of magnitude 9.2 struck off its coast.

“The quake did not trigger a tsunami”, he said.