A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off Indonesia's Flores Island early Saturday, killing at least 47 people, collapsing buildings and triggering landslides across East Nusa Tenggara province. Suharyanto, head of Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency, said at least 50 people had been taken to hospitals. Officials warned that the toll remained provisional because rescuers had not reached some isolated communities.
The U.S. Geological Survey located the shallow quake 68 kilometers north-northwest of Ende at a depth of 10 kilometers and said it struck at 5:58 a.m. local time. Authorities initially issued a tsunami warning and ordered coastal residents toward higher ground, then lifted it after monitoring found no continuing major threat. Indonesia's meteorological agency nevertheless recorded local waves, including a 1.61-meter surge at Riung and a 0.94-meter wave at Maurole. Mud and debris covered the coast at Riung, leaving fishing boats stranded and damaging nearby infrastructure.
The meteorological agency counted at least 235 aftershocks, the strongest at magnitude 6.2. Police chief Rudi Darmoko said power failures and damaged communications slowed the collection of reports, while landslides blocked sections of the roughly 700-kilometer Trans-Flores highway. Search official Fathur Rahman said damaged roads, buried villages and too little heavy equipment were preventing teams from reaching several remote areas across six regencies. Nagekeo, the area closest to the epicenter, was among the places teams had struggled to reach.
Suharyanto said the quake flattened at least 157 homes and damaged nearly 200 others, forcing about 2,000 villagers into temporary shelters. More than 100 public facilities, including schools, health centers and churches, were also destroyed. Authorities deployed three helicopters and a rescue vessel to move personnel, supplies and possible evacuees through an island province where difficult terrain and sea crossings complicate emergency access.
Residents described running uphill as buildings shook, and the Associated Press reported that the waiting room at Maumere's port terminal collapsed. At a seminary in Sikka, students and nuns fled when an assembly-hall roof fell; its rector said a priest broke a leg after jumping from a second floor. Damage was also reported around Labuan Bajo, the gateway to Komodo National Park, as well as in Bima and parts of southern Sulawesi.
Indonesia lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire and regularly experiences destructive earthquakes and volcanic activity. A 1992 Flores earthquake and tsunami killed about 2,500 people, while a 2018 quake and localized tsunami killed more than 4,400; the 2004 Sumatra disaster killed about 230,000 across a dozen countries. Rescue teams were continuing searches and damage assessments, and officials said casualty and infrastructure figures could change as access and communications improve.
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