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Six students, one teacher injured in Nusa Dua quake
Seven people were injured and at least 44 buildings damaged after a 5
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span>Seven people were injured and at least 44 buildings damaged after a 5.8-magnitude earthquake shook the southwestern coast of Bali on Tuesday morning.
The earthquake struck at 8:18 a.m., 83 kilometers southwest of Nusa Dua, a tourist hub in the southern part of the island-province, and was felt across Bali, Lombok and parts of East Java.
The earthquake broke the top of a Balinese entrance gate to the Nusa Dua hotel complex and damaged parts of the Mercure Hotel.
Aside from the hotels and temples, most of the damaged buildings were schools in many parts of the island.
Students rushed to get out of their classrooms as the ground shook. Walls were cracked and roofs collapsed in many of the buildings.
The seven injured were students and a teacher at the schools. Three of the injured were two students and a teacher from SD 1 Ungasan state elementary school, and another two were pupils at SMP 2 South Kuta state junior high school. Both schools are in Badung.
The other two injured were pupils from SMP 5 Mendoyo state junior high school in Jembrana.
Some schools on the island chose to send their students home early.
Kadek Devi Wellayanti, 29, who lives in Denpasar, was shocked when the earthquake occurred.
“I was in the bathroom when it happened. I was shaking, but I was not sure why. I just realized that it was an earthquake when my family called my name and told me to get out of the bathroom,” the mother of three said.
Devi said she felt the earthquake twice. “The second earthquake was much stronger than the first one,” she said.
Made Suastini, a lecturer at a tourism institute in Nusa Dua, was inside the institute’s building with new students for an orientation program when the quake happened. She is six months pregnant.
“I was confused, whether I should run or just walk slowly. I decided to just walk, as suggested by my friend. I was shocked at that time,” she said.
Suastini said the institute’s building had minor damage as some decorative stones inside the building had fallen to the floor. “Fortunately, no one was injured,” she said, adding that the orientation program was later continued outside the building.
Bali Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD Bali) head Made Rentin said the earthquake, which was at a depth of 65 km and considered a shallow earthquake, brought significant damages.
“There are reports of damaged buildings mostly in southern Bali,” he said.
Rentin said the seven people who were injured in Badung and Jembrana mostly hurt themselves because they panicked when the earthquake struck.
The island and tourism returned to normal in the afternoon soon after the earthquake. It did not affect flight operations at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport.
The Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center (PVMBG) revealed that the carbonate and volcanic rocks surrounding the epicenter of the earthquake in the sea southwest of Bali intensified the shocks, but also meant no tsunami risk was detected.
“Weathered rocks that were not yet compact and untrammeled in nature will intensify the shock effects of the quake, hence people would feel it more,” PVMBG head Kasbani said in a written statement.
He expected that the quake was linked to a subduction zone between the Eurasian and Indo-Australian plates.
Reports from nearby volcanoes revealed that the shocks were also felt on Mount Batur and Mount Agung in Bali; Mount Raung in Banyuwangi, East Java, and Mount Rinjani in Lombok.
