Indonesia, M6.8 Earthquake in Central Sulawesi

JAKARTA - A number of damage to buildings in several districts were identified by the post-earthquake regional disaster management agency that occurred in the Central Sulawesi Province on Friday (12/4) at 18:40 WIB. A total of 34 houses were damaged in the category of light to heavy, while public facilities included 1 unit school and 2 units of worship. The M 6.8 earthquake affected four districts, namely Morowali, Morowali Utara, Banggai Laut and East Luwu. Most house damage occurred in Morowali Regency with details of 19 units of lightly damaged houses, moderate damage to 3, and severely damaged 5. 3 units of lightly damaged houses were damaged in Morowali Utara and 1 severely damaged, while Banggai Laut was slightly damaged 2 units and East Luwu 1. Meanwhile 1 junior high school unit was severely damaged and 1 place of worship was slightly damaged in Morowali Regency, while 1 unit of a place of worship was severely damaged in North Morowali. The data above is received by the Operational Control Center of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) as of Saturday (4/14), at 11:18 p.m. WIB. As informed earlier, the community situation was conducive several hours after the earthquake with a depth of 17 km. To this day (14/4), BPBD of Banggai Islands Regency has identified 1,986 people in 6 villages in Buko Selatan District and 400 others displaced in the An-Nur Trikora Mosque Complex, Salakan Village, Tinangkung District. Whereas in other districts, residents have returned to their homes. In Morowali District, 2 people suffered injuries while evacuating. Until Saturday (13/4) the Rapid Reaction Team in several affected districts continued to collect data and appealed to the community to return to their homes and ask residents to remain vigilant. This earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 shook the territory of Morowali, North Morowali and Banggai Islands, Central Sulawesi. The earthquake had an epicenter at coordinates 1.89 LS and 122.57 BT, precisely in Tolo Bay, at a distance of 82 kilometers southwest of the Banggai Islands, Central Sulawesi Province, with a depth of 17 kilometers. The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said that taking into account the location of the epicenter and the depth of the hypocenter, this earthquake was a shallow type due to active fault activity. BMGK suspects that the fault structure that has become the earthquake generator is the Peleng Fault, whose route is southwest-oceanic on Peleng Island and continues to Tolo Bay. Sutopo Purwo Nugroho Head of BNPB Data, Information and Public Relations Center