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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 28, 2018 17:07:03 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 29, 2018 11:19:36 GMT
The death toll is already up to 384. Looks like this is going to be far worse than Lombok.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 29, 2018 15:44:32 GMT
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Shamefully, I was distracted by US political drama and heard only a glancing reference to this Indonesian tragedy, which I failed to follow up on. Here's a map of the area affected by that 7.5 quake, from this site: earthquake.usgs.gov
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Post by questa on Sept 30, 2018 1:46:43 GMT
I can only hope that the Jakarta emergency decisions are better than the recent Lombok disaster. To show that it is capable of managing things like a 'first world country', the govt decided not to allow the international organisations to come in and help. They then cut off all food aid to the people after 5 weeks. My friends are still living in tents (tarpaulins over ropes, not proper tents) in the rice fields. It is the wet season and they are constantly cold and damp, pneumonia is rife and the field can't be planted out, so no rice crop.
This Sulawasi tragedy will probably be worse in that without outside help, the aid funds will be running low. I read that they sent in the Army first to 'maintain order' whereas in Lombok the Emergency Management Teams hit the deck running before the Police and Army moved in. Also after the first quake, the people had a little time to prepare for aftershocks.
Tsunami warnings are pretty useless when people 1) don't get them, 2) don't recognise them 3) don't know what to do and 4) stand and take videos of them instead of heading for high areas.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 30, 2018 4:37:16 GMT
I read also that the tsunami alert had been lifted just a few minutes before the tsunami hit the coast.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 30, 2018 5:05:44 GMT
The reports are really harrowing and heartbreaking.
Ignorant question, but what triggers the tsunami alert? Is it the actual movement from an earthquake, or scientific observation of what the earthquake might provoke?
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 30, 2018 5:58:48 GMT
It's a matter of scientific calculations (certainly computer generated now) based on the depth and strength of the earthquake in relation to the configuration and depth of the coastal waters. In this particular case, being at the end of a bay spelled doom for Palu. www.weather-forecast.com/locationmaps/Palu.10.gif
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Post by questa on Sept 30, 2018 6:22:31 GMT
I think that there is a system of scientific buoys floating at points around the tsunami-prone oceans. They are monitored by specialist teams of meteorologists to give warning in time to alert action. It is an expensive process and countries are expected to "opt in and pay their way.". Indonesia has a few buoys but get a short warning and of course don't practise what to do if one does come along.
The 2004 one that hit much of Asia was recognised by a young UK girl who had been studying them at school. As the water was sucking back to form the wave she remembered the sign and ran along the beach in Thailand yelling to get to high places. She possibly saved many lives as the tourists ran to the nearby big hotels.
edit...not sure if girl was from UK...maybe Scandinavian
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Post by lugg on Sept 30, 2018 18:03:11 GMT
Terrible news indeed, lets hope aid is able to get to the right people quickly. I vaguely remember that too Questa but cannot remember what nationality she was - I think maybe it was in Khao Lak, Thailand.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 30, 2018 18:24:57 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 1, 2018 4:46:42 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 1, 2018 4:58:03 GMT
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Post by questa on Oct 2, 2018 4:44:24 GMT
Air traffic controller, 21-year-old Anthonius Gunawan Agung, is being celebrated as a hero after the Indonesian man safely guided a plane off the ground after control tower personnel were evacuated due to a massive earthquake.
Agung joins the death toll of over 400 from the 7.5 magnitude earthquake and tsunami which hit the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Friday. He was working on the fourth floor of the control tower at the Mutiara Sis Al Jufri Airport in Palu when the tremors began.
As reported by the ABC, the walls began to sway and crack, but the 21-year-old successfully guided pilot Icoze Ezoci to takeoff, potentially saving hundreds of lives.
It was only after the plane was in the air that Agung tried to escape the trembling building. At this point the control tower roof was at risk of collapsing and he jumped from the fourth floor of the tower, breaking his leg and suffering fatal internal injuries.
According to pilot Ezoci, Agung’s last words were: “Batik 6231 runway 33 clear for take off.”
Sharing a tribute on Instagram, he thanked the late air traffic controller for his brave actions.
“Thank you for keeping me and guarding me till I’m safely airborne,” he wrote.
“Wing of honour for Anthonius Gunawan Agung as my guardian angel at Palu. Rest peacefully my wing man. God be with you.”
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Post by mickthecactus on Oct 2, 2018 14:08:01 GMT
That is some story. Brave man.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 2, 2018 14:17:37 GMT
And yet the tower never collapsed. If only he had not jumped!
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Post by lugg on Oct 2, 2018 18:47:05 GMT
Thanks for the link to Tilly K2 I had the right country but wrong place. The news seems to get worse but the government do seem to be accepting of outside help / aid which is a bonus. What a brave man Questa
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 5, 2018 6:24:14 GMT
I see that the death toll is now past 1400.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 5, 2018 16:26:11 GMT
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Post by lagatta on Oct 5, 2018 18:04:59 GMT
That is horrible; the soldiers have no facial protection from the pestilence... And what a sad-looking mosque and minaret. I don't know anything about liquefaction; could it have to do with ground water beneath the soft surface?
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 5, 2018 18:23:55 GMT
I had seen videos of liquefaction before. It is basically just a question of having the "perfect" vibration at the "wrong" time. It can happen in any seismic zone.
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Post by questa on Oct 6, 2018 0:02:34 GMT
Lagatta, I was told it is like when you open a jar of brown sugar and find it has clumped together and gone hard. That is what the ground is like when people build on it. If you pick up the jar of sugar and shake it hard enough the sugar will break up into clumps and then grains which act in the shaking like a fluid. Things denser than sugar (infrastructure) will sink as in quicksand, lighter than earth will be shaken to the surface. The whole ground becomes like a jelly-fluid and anything on it gets sucked under.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 7, 2018 18:02:18 GMT
Today the Indonesian government announced 5000 missing persons in addition to the 1700 official deaths.
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Post by questa on Oct 8, 2018 0:14:47 GMT
Since the 1950s Indonesia has had a 'transmigrasi' program where households or even whole villages were moved from the over-populated islands and given land, housing and infrastructure on the less crowded islands. It was voluntary and many thousands came from Bali and Java to Sulawesi, setting up new enclaves and mostly prospering. In my friend's village in Tabanan region about half of the village took up the offer over a few years and just about everyone there has a 'cousin in Sulawesi.'
There are always people on the move as relatives visit each other. I would think that with this tragedy there will never be an accurate number reached. All the records kept of the towns and villages will have been lost along with the families' own histories.
There is also the chain effect of the shock and grief in Bali and Java. Usually a terrible occurrence like this is slightly diminished by distance from the event. e.g. Sulawesi did not have the same reactions to the Bali Bombing as Bali did. In the current situation the intense family ties will have led to greater grief in Bali and Java than if it had happened in Aceh or West Timor.
(BTW the transmigrasi program was not 100% successful. It worked fairly well for the migrants, there was more land for the 'stay at home'...so they just had more babies, and the islands are more populated than before.)
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Post by lagatta on Oct 9, 2018 17:04:51 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 9, 2018 17:29:27 GMT
It is extremely true that there are "famous" parts of Indonesia that get a lot of press coverage and other parts that are completely ignored, pretty much no matter what happens. Since it covers more territory than the United States, this might almost be considered "normal." The media (and their consumers) have only a limited amount of space to absorb world events. Whose fault is it? Our brains, most likely.
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Post by questa on Oct 9, 2018 23:19:37 GMT
Tsunami warnings are pretty useless when people 1) don't get them, 2) don't recognise them 3) don't know what to do and 4) stand and take videos of them instead of heading for high areas. Lagatta, that LRB article is spot on. Indonesian culture is full of superstition and just about any event can be traced back to the humans not keeping the demons happy. Most of the people in this nation of islands are very wary of the sea and there are several places in Bali that I know of where they will not even touch the water at that beach. As the writer says, the best prevention is educating people to keep watch and act to a plan of escape. It is unrealistic to expect the Govt to maintain the buoys and operate a properly trained emergency response. Budgets for things like this are known to trickle away easily. In 2014 I was surprised to see they were rebuilding Aceh on the same site. The native people knew not to build on the coast. I wonder if they will move Palu inland or rebuild on site?
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Post by questa on Oct 11, 2018 22:30:04 GMT
Today is the last day of searching for the bodies of the thousands still missing. The people are still looking but the authorities have decided for health issues that the areas be converted to mass graves tomorrow. The warning has been given that bodies must not be touched as there is the possibility of an outbreak of cholera. That is all they need.
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