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Strengthening disaster risk reduction at local levels
Post-earthquake disaster efforts in West Nusa Tenggara were ongoing when the earthquake and tsunami struck Central Sulawesi on Sept. 28, stunning us with its devastating impact.
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A member of the crew of the Sabuk Nusantara stands on his ship on Thursday, October. 4, 2018, the vessel was tossed onto the land in the tsunami at Wani Port in Donggala, Central Sulawesi. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
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ost-earthquake disaster efforts in West Nusa Tenggara were ongoing when the earthquake and tsunami struck Central Sulawesi on Sept. 28, stunning us with its devastating impact. Yet, Central Sulawesi had already been categorized as one of the areas prone to earthquakes, because of the Palu Koro fault that runs from the Makassar Strait to the Bone Bay across the island.
According to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), most victims were found in collapsed buildings and houses destroyed by the earthquake along the coast, including the popular Talise Beach in Palu, and more are likely still under the mud following the liquefaction that drowned dense settlements in the city’s Balaroa housing complex, Petobo and Sigi districts.
At the very least, the large number of casualties caused by the tsunami in coastal areas including Talise could have been avoided with more widespread understanding about the potential for tsunamis following earthquakes, as seen in the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in Aceh as well as a similar disaster in the Mentawai Islands in 2009.
The low level of awareness and understanding apparent in Palu, Central Sulawesi’s capital and other affected areas such as Donggala showed the urgent need to improve such awareness in many areas across Indonesia that are prone to disasters.
