Lombok Island was experiencing the earthquake in the past 2 weeks. The first earthquake occurred on July 29, 2018 when 6.4-magnitude earthquake strikes the island. The epicenter was 28 km northwest of East Lombok – NTB. A week after that, which on August 5, 2018, another catastrophic tremor hits Lombok Island with a magnitude of 7 at a depth of 15 km.
The quake, centered 18 km northwest of East Lombok – NTB, caused a tremendous panic because the Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) reported that the earthquake had the potential to cause a tsunami until the BMKG finally revoked the Tsunami Early Warning.
Based on data derived from BMKG, until 11 August 2018 at 08.00 Local Time, there had been at least 521 aftershocks from the 7.0 magnitude earthquake (5 August 2018) and 21 of them were felt by the community, where the largest aftershock was 6.2-magnitude shocks on the 9th August 2018. This makes the Governor of West Nusa Tenggara, TGH Zainul Majdi, set an emergency response period to deal with the impact of the earthquake until August 25, 2018.
Until August 13, 2018, there were 436 people died, 13.688 wounded, with nearly 352,793 displaced are recorded. North Lombok Regency ranks the highest in the number of dead and displaced, which is 374 people and 137,182 people respectively.
It is estimated that the number of victims will continue to increase as the victims who are allegedly buried by landslides and collapsed buildings, and the victims that have not been recorded and reported to the post. As for physical damage, 52,812 housing units, 458 school units, 3 hospital units, 10 puskesmas (district health facilities) units, and 197 prayer rooms were damaged with losses reaching IDR 5.04 trillion (Indonesian Rupiah).
As a result, The government and other parties had sent out supplies (aid, food, etc) to the evacuation posts. Concentration of the supplies is directed to North Lombok. However, there are several points that have not received the supplies or are still limited. there are still many posts in the North Lombok that have not been fully supplied especially in the Kayangan, Gangga, and Pemenang Subdistrict where access is difficult to reach due to damaged road access. This is because the North Lombok is the most severely affected area.
As for urgent needs for the displaced such as tents, blankets, instant food, rice, bath and toilets, drinking water, clean water, water storages, clothing, tarpaulin/mattress, lighting/electricity, health services, and trauma healing facilities are still needed.
To help the government and the affected communities, Summit Institute of Development (SID) responded immediately by conducting two activities. First, SID has been doing direct relief to support victims, and using our OpenSRP information platform to do rapid enumeration of displaced persons and linking persons in need with the aid that’s coming in from multiple sources, and linking families together again. We are also doing spot surveys to be sure there are adequate resources. This is all closely coordinated with the local authorities.. Second, we formed a fundraising drive that would be aimed to the displaced affected by the earthquake.
If you would like to give donations for the Lombok, Indonesia earthquake relief, please donate via Center for Health and Human Development (CHHD). CHHD is our partner agency, supporting relief efforts in Lombok for the Earthquake victims From this donation raising, it is expected to make a difference for the communities now and in the future.