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Mentawai residents return home after quake
Residents in Mentawai Islands in West Sumatra have returned home by Tuesday afternoon after a 6.9 magnitude earthquake earlier in the day.
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People gather in a temporary shelter following an earthquake off Mentawai Islands, at Muara Sikabaluan village in Siberut Utara, West Sumatra province on Sept. 11, 2022. (AFP/Bambang Sagurung)
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o:p>Residents in Mentawai Islands in West Sumatra had returned home by Tuesday afternoon after a 6.9 magnitude earthquake earlier in the day.
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency reported that the earthquake hit at 3 a.m. on Tuesday, with the epicenter located 177 kilometers northwest of Mentawai Islands at a depth of 23 km, triggering a tsunami warning.
South Nias Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) official Epaproditus Dachi said local residents evacuated themselves following the warning, which was also spread through WhatsApp messages.
“They have now returned home,” Dachi told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday afternoon.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBN) reported there were power outages in some parts of the Mentawai Islands that were closest to the epicenter. Several aftershocks were recorded and a tide gauge at Tana Bala island recorded an 11-centimeter rise in water levels after the main quake.
The quake was also felt in North Sumatra, with one house reported collapsing in Angkola Muaratais district in South Tapanuli.
Indonesia experiences frequent earthquakes because it straddles the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a seismically active zone where different plates of the earth's crust meet
Padang and West Sumatra province were struck by a magnitude 7.6 earthquake in 2009 that killed more than 1,100 people, injured many more and caused widespread destruction. (dre)
