Indonesia Flores earthquake survivors await aid as aftershocks hit 1,576 times

Reo,UPDATED: Aug 17, 2026 16:24 IST

Thousands of people on Indonesia's Flores island were still waiting for aid on Monday, days after a powerful earthquake killed at least 68 people, injured more than 200 and damaged hundreds of homes and other buildings. Many residents spent Indonesia's 81st Independence Day mourning the victims and waiting for help to reach communities that were still cut off.

During the Independence Day ceremony in Jakarta, President Prabowo Subianto asked participants to pray for people affected by disasters in East Nusa Tenggara and other parts of the country, while leading a nationwide moment of silence for the nation's independence heroes. The province's governor declared a 14-day state of emergency on Sunday, as authorities recorded 1,576 aftershocks until Monday after the quake struck on Saturday morning.

According to Indonesia's Disaster Management Agency, more than 1,300 homes were damaged in East Nusa Tenggara province, including nearly 250 on Flores alone, and around 5,000 people were forced into temporary shelters. The US Geological Survey said the earthquake struck at a depth of 10 km shortly before 6 am on Saturday. Residents fled in panic as tsunami warnings were issued and later lifted.

Thousands of people on Flores spent Sunday night and Monday in tarpaulin tents outside collapsed homes because of fears of more aftershocks. An Associated Press photojournalist saw widespread destruction, including fallen trees blocking roads, giant boulders hurled down slopes by landslides, shattered homes and buildings collapsed onto parked cars. For many residents, the disaster brought back memories of the 1992 earthquake and tsunami on Flores that killed about 2,500 people. "My house is just rubble now," said Rasyid Jafar, a clothing trader in Reo, the hardest-hit area in Manggarai regency. "We need food, medicine and clean water urgently."

Abdul Muhari, deputy chief of the disaster management agency, said nearly 1,500 military and police personnel had been deployed across the disaster zone, with support from 10 aircraft distributing 275 tonnes of aid, though difficult terrain had slowed deliveries to some of the worst-hit places. Authorities set up two emergency field hospitals in Ruteng after local hospitals were damaged, and two crisis management teams were overseeing a health emergency operation centre. Muhari said rescue teams were still searching affected areas, although no residents had reported any family members missing.

Aid workers reached tiny Palue Island, one of the places closest to the epicentre, late on Sunday after what authorities described as a difficult sea and land journey through landslide-hit terrain. Thousands of residents there remained in urgent need of assistance after days of isolation. "The roads are steep and many were blocked by landslides. It was a near-death journey," said Marselus Yugo Amboro, deputy police chief of Sikka regency, whose team was among the first to reach the island with emergency supplies. He said early assessments showed heavy damage, with one villager killed, two seriously injured and nearly 150 homes destroyed.

Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions because of its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire. In 2018, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake triggered a tsunami on Sulawesi that killed more than 4,400 people, while a magnitude 9.1 quake off Sumatra in 2004 set off a tsunami that killed about 230,000 people in a dozen countries, including nearly 170,000 in Aceh province alone. On Monday, Flores remained focused on rescue efforts, relief supplies and shelter as thousands awaited help after the quake.

With PTI Inputs

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