A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia early Saturday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, collapsing buildings and homes, killing at least two people, and prompting widespread panic across a region prone to deadly quakes. The shallow undersea tremor hit Indonesia’s Flores region at a depth of 10 kilometers at 5:58 a.m. local time, with its epicenter located 68 kilometers north-northwest of the city of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara province, as reported by ABC News.
An initial tsunami alert was posted by authorities for sections of East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi, and Southeast Sulawesi provinces, with people living along the coast directed to seek higher ground. That warning was subsequently lifted after monitoring by Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency showed no significant sea-level changes that would pose a threat to coastal communities. However, the initial jolt and subsequent aftershocks caused severe localized damage across Flores island and nearby areas, triggering emergency hospital evacuations and building collapses.
Casualties and Structural Damage Across Flores Island
Preliminary reports from the Maumere Search and Rescue Agency confirmed that at least two residents were killed and two others injured during the earthquake, according to disaster management officials cited by ABC News. The strong shaking was felt across much of Flores island, destroying multiple residential homes and commercial structures.
Yohanna Embu, a resident of Sikka regency in East Nusa Tenggara province, described the destructive impact of the tremor. “Many buildings here were damaged … I saw that the waiting room at the port terminal in Maumere had collapsed,” she told reporters in accounts published by ABC News.
At St. Peter Major Seminary in Sikka, also known locally as Ritapiret Seminary, students attending morning Mass fled in panic when the roof of an assembly hall collapsed. Guidelbertus Tanga, rector of the seminary on the predominantly Catholic island, recounted the chaotic scene. “Our students and nuns ran out in panic beneath a collapsing roof,” Tanga said, mentioning in details reported by ABC News that at least one priest sustained a broken leg from leaping out of a building’s second story during the tremor.
Hospital Evacuations and Emergency Response
Local television footage broadcast following the disaster showed hospital staff scrambling to move patients outdoors as a precaution following the quake. Medical personnel moved equipment outdoors, including beds, IV stands and oxygen cylinders, and set up temporary treatment areas to adapt to emergency conditions, according to reporting by ABC News.
Authorities urged residents to stay away from beaches and riverbanks. Authorities continued to advise residents in vulnerable zones to remain cautious and heed local safety advisories as aftershocks continued.
Geological Vulnerability Along the Pacific Ring of Fire
Because it sits atop the “Ring of Fire”—a Pacific Basin zone characterized by numerous fault lines and volcanoes—the massive Southeast Asian archipelago nation of over 17,000 islands frequently experiences seismic and volcanic disturbances. Saturday’s earthquake follows a long history of seismic events in the region.
In 1992, a powerful earthquake caused a tsunami that killed about 2,500 people on Flores island. Back in 2018, a magnitude 7.5 tremor triggered a major local tsunami that devastated coastal districts, while soil liquefaction from the tremors converted whole neighborhoods into rivers of mud in Palu—an eastern Indonesian city situated on the Palu-Koro Fault—ultimately causing a death toll exceeding 4,400. Other notable historic disasters include a 2010 tsunami in the Mentawai Islands that killed over 400 people, and a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra in December 2004 that triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries, as outlined by ABC News.
Emergency management officials plan to release further damage assessments and casualty updates as communications are restored and rescue teams reach remote areas of East Nusa Tenggara province.
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