Strong 5.9-magnitude quake jolts Indonesia's #Lombok

Mataram, Indonesia - A strong aftershock struck Indonesia's Lombok on Thursday, causing panic among evacuees sheltering after a devastating earthquake killed more than 160 on the holiday island four days earlier.

The 5.9-magnitude quake Thursday struck at a shallow depth in the northwest of the island, the US Geological Survey said, even as relief agencies raced to find survivors among wreckage from Sunday's quake.

    "The quake was felt strongly. There have been 355 aftershocks since Sunday," national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

    Evacuees at a shelter in northern Lombok's Tanjung district ran out onto the road crying and screaming, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

    Motorcycles parked on the street toppled over and the walls of some nearby buildings collapsed.

    A woman wearing a motorbike helmet was seen crying with her two daughters in her arms.

    "We were stuck in the traffic while delivering aid, suddenly it felt like our car was hit from behind, it was so strong," witness Sri Laksmi told AFP.

 

 "People in the street began to panic and got out of their cars, they ran in different directions in the middle of the traffic."

     The aftershock comes after Sunday's devastating 6.9-magnitude earthquake, which relief agencies said had wiped out entire villages in the worst-hit regions of northern and western Lombok.

    A total of 164 people have been confirmed killed in Sunday's quake, national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told AFP, with a further 1,400 seriously injured and more than 150,000 displaced.

    Relief efforts had yet to reach parts of the island even before Thursday's aftershock, Indonesian authorities said, with hopes fading of finding further survivors among the wreckage.

    "The earthquake does not have any tsunami potential," Hary Tirto Djatmiko, spokesman for Indonesia's meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency (BMKG), said of Thursday's aftershock.

Source - TheNation

 

#Philippines - Phivolcs warns of catastrophic mudflow from Mayon

LEGAZPI CITY — The threat of catastrophic mudflow is building on the slopes of Mount Mayon where nearly 90,000 residents have been moved out of harm’s way, authorities said on Tuesday.

Mayon has spewed millions of tons of ash, rocks, lava and debris in less than three weeks, much of it loosely lodged on its burnt slopes and which experts warn could be dislodged by heavy rain.

Activity continued overnight with “energetic lava effusion,” while previously extruded lava was also collapsing on the crater, only to be pushed out again as debris, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said in its latest bulletin.

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Loud booming sounds, like that of thunder, accompanied the eruptions, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer near the mountain.

“The public is strongly advised to be vigilant and desist from entering the 8-kilometer radius danger zone, and to be additionally vigilant against pyroclastic density currents, lahar and sediment-laden stream flows,” the bulletin said.
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Pyroclastic currents are the superheated clouds of gas, ash and other volcanic debris that burn everything in their path as they speed down the slopes of the 2,460-meter volcano in Albay province.

The institute said these materials were building blocks for lahar mammoth debris flows that could find their way into streams and rivers and mow down surrounding communities.

An earlier Mayon eruption passed without any casualties in 2006, but four months later a typhoon unleashed an avalanche of volcanic mud from its slopes, killing about 1,000 people.
On Saturday, Phivolcs issued its first lahar warning on Mayon this year due to incessant rain that is usual in the region at this time of the year.

A day later, Phivolcs made a video recording of lahar flowing down a river near Daraga town south of the volcano, though it did not cause any damage or casualties.

Source - inquirer.net

Philippines - Regions share this Number of Mayon evacuees surges to about 84,500 - local officials

The number of evacuees in Albay province swelled to almost 84,500 as threats of a possible major explosion of the restless Mt. Mayon persists.

In a report of Legazpi City’s Provincial Disaster Operation Center issued on Wednesday, a total of 84,425 individuals or 21,987 families from the 61 barangays within the 8-kilometer danger zone are currently sheltered in 79 evacuations centers located in different Albay towns.

This figure is 15,000 individuals or 3,696 families higher than the recorded 69,425 individuals or 18,291 families evacuated from the danger zone as of Tuesday.

 Meanwhile, the Philippine Institute of Seismology and Volcanology (Phivolcs) documented from Tuesday morning until Wednesday early morning a total of 298 volcanic earthquakes, 52 rock fall events, and four pyroclastic density currents generated from lava collapse.

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“The public is strongly advised to be vigilant and desist from entering the eight kilometer-radius danger zone, and to be additionally vigilant against pyroclastic density current, lahars, and sediment-laden stream flows along channels draining the edifice,” the Phivolcs said.         /kga

Responding to appeals for help, the Philippine Daily Inquirer is extending its relief to the families affected by the recent volcanic activities of Mayon.

Cash donations may be deposited in the Inquirer Foundation Corp. Banco De Oro (BDO) Current Account No: 007960018860.

Inquiries may be addressed to Inquirer’s Corporate Affairs office through Connie Kalagayan at 897-4426, ckalagayan@inquirer.com.ph and Bianca Kasilag-Macahilig at 897-8808 local 352, bkasilag@inquirer.com.ph.

Source - Inquires