International Medical Corps is responding to a series of powerful earthquakes that shook Indonesia. The first, an 8.4-magnitude quake southwest of Sumatra triggered a small tsunami that hit one city on the island. It was followed by a series of aftershocks, the strongest of which registered at a magnitude of 6.6 and triggered a second tsunami alert for Indonesia, which was lifted about an hour later. Another earthquake, registering a 6.4 magnitude, hit southeast of Sulawesi, triggering another tsunami warning.
IMC's Jakarta office is working with its partner Ambulan 118 who has deployed an emergency response team to support its network of local health care providers in the effected area. IMC partners with Ambulan 118, an Indonesian organization that has a broad network of province-based emergency health personnel who are trained and equipped to respond to natural and man-made disasters, by providing emergency medical services and treatment of trauma cases.
In early September, IMC and Ambulan 118 conducted a disaster response simulation training in Padang, one of the regions where the September 12 earthquake struck. "Because the IMC/Ambulan 118 team had a solid understanding of the emergency response capacity in the area, we were able to respond very quickly," says Nesya Hughes, Acting Country Director of IMC's Indonesia office.
Although initial reports indicated that the Bengkulu district hospital was destroyed in Wednesday's earthquake, the team's Collapse Structure Search and Rescue (CSSR) staff has since determined that the building has just sustained minor damage. The hospital is currently operating out of a field structure until a full evaluation of the building has been completed. The team is led by a senior surgeon and is comprised of Emergency Paramedic staff and CSSR staff.
Reports from the Bengkulu district are still vague due to poor communication links and accounts from field staff indicate that there are approximately 200 displaced people in this area. IMC and Ambulan 118 will send an additional medical assessment team to Padang who will travel down the coast towards Mukomuko and Bengkulu assessing rural costal communities that were worst hit areas and are reporting the most significant damage.
Four provinces felt the earthquake: Jambi, Riau, Bengkulu and West Sumatra, along with tremors felt in East Jakarta. Seven people have died due to the earthquake, with many more casualties expected due to the collapse of major buildings. Approximately 40% of the buildings in one district alone have been damaged with major damage being reported to houses, roads, and buildings in the Mentawi Islands (off the coast of Sumatra). Electricity and telephone services were disrupted but re-established within two hours of the quake.
IMC has been operational in Indonesia since 2000, responding to natural and man made emergencies. After the 2004 Tsunami, IMC began to look at methods in which to better prepare the region against such catastrophic disasters. IMC's program with Ambulan 118 has led to successful emergency responses over the past two years, such as the Yogyakarta earthquake, the Padang earthquake, which is in the same region as the current earthquake, and the Jakarta floods.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
