Update: Earthquake shocked Simeulue

Here is what I got from Disaster Management Information System (DMIS) and friends within International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Indonesia Delegation:

A strong earthquake shocked Aceh yesterday, 20 February 2008. The Meteorology and Geophysical Agency (BMG) said the quake had magnitude 6.6 SR (they revised later to 7.6) in location 2.58N, 95.99E at 03.08 PM Local Time in depth 37 kilometres. The first earthquake then followed by at least another two aftershocks in the same location with magnitude 5.5 and 5.3 SR. There is no tsunami warning but people are still worried, make some of them prefer to stay in the higher area.

According data from health department there were 3 elder people died and 25 people injured in Sinabang. Based on their local wisdom if they felt a strong shake automatically they will running to the higher land to see water sea level.

Also reported that electricity in the area was cut down and cellular phone signal was interrupted. Only fixed phone well functioned in this area. Many buildings damaged and collapsed but there are no fix number related with this until this morning.

The Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) had deployed 50 local volunteers in Sinabang to the location. PMI patrolled to some subdistricts to observe the conditions. They have been evacuating the injured people to the nearest health facilities. PMI keep 24 hours monitoring unit to update the situation. (ah)