Planning helped minimize impact of earthquakes
Source: Agencies |
April 13, 2012, Friday
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Print Edition
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RESIDENTS surveying damage from two powerful earthquakes that revived memories of the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami said yesterday they could hardly believe their luck.
Five people died from heart attacks and a few others were injured on Wednesday as mobs used cars and motorcycles to flee to high ground in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh - closest to the epicenters.
But aside from cracks in the walls of houses and damage to a bridge, you would hardly know anything happened, said Usman Basyah, smiling as he handed change to customers at his stall.
"I really feel my prayers were answered this time," said Basyah, who lost a son in the disaster eight years ago. "I'm so grateful. We've gone through enough trauma already," he added.
Another man, who spent the night in a mosque sheltering with hundreds of others worried about aftershocks, agreed.
"Of course I was scared," said Nasir Djamil. "We all were. But we were much better prepared this time. We learned from the last nightmare."
That was the sentiment across much of the globe. The first quake, measuring 8.6, triggered a tsunami watch in more than two dozen nations and island territories, from Australia and India to as far off as Africa. Hours later, a 8.2-magnitude aftershock hit.
In southern India, police spread out across Chennai's popular Marina Beach to enforce an evacuation. Sri Lankan tsunami alert teams on motorcycles rode along the coast urging people to move to higher ground.
Warning buoys - put to sea after the 2004 disaster that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations, three quarters of them in Aceh - accurately predicted that the tsunami would not be big.
Still, traffic jams in Aceh pointed to the need for better planning. Twenty minutes after the quake, vehicles were gridlocked in areas that in 2004 were under water.
"It wouldn't have been as bad," said Iskandar, a local disaster management official. "But if there had a been a repeat, there would have been deaths."
Five people died from heart attacks and a few others were injured on Wednesday as mobs used cars and motorcycles to flee to high ground in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh - closest to the epicenters.
But aside from cracks in the walls of houses and damage to a bridge, you would hardly know anything happened, said Usman Basyah, smiling as he handed change to customers at his stall.
"I really feel my prayers were answered this time," said Basyah, who lost a son in the disaster eight years ago. "I'm so grateful. We've gone through enough trauma already," he added.
Another man, who spent the night in a mosque sheltering with hundreds of others worried about aftershocks, agreed.
"Of course I was scared," said Nasir Djamil. "We all were. But we were much better prepared this time. We learned from the last nightmare."
That was the sentiment across much of the globe. The first quake, measuring 8.6, triggered a tsunami watch in more than two dozen nations and island territories, from Australia and India to as far off as Africa. Hours later, a 8.2-magnitude aftershock hit.
In southern India, police spread out across Chennai's popular Marina Beach to enforce an evacuation. Sri Lankan tsunami alert teams on motorcycles rode along the coast urging people to move to higher ground.
Warning buoys - put to sea after the 2004 disaster that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations, three quarters of them in Aceh - accurately predicted that the tsunami would not be big.
Still, traffic jams in Aceh pointed to the need for better planning. Twenty minutes after the quake, vehicles were gridlocked in areas that in 2004 were under water.
"It wouldn't have been as bad," said Iskandar, a local disaster management official. "But if there had a been a repeat, there would have been deaths."
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