Trauma Healing Team Deployed To Help Selayar Residents Affected By The NTT Earthquake

Trauma healing team for residents of Selayar Regency after the NTT earthquake (Photo: BNPB documentation)

JAKARTA - The South Sulawesi Provincial Government has dispatched a trauma healing team from the Office of Women's Empowerment, Child Protection, Population Control, and Family Planning (DP3A-Dalduk KB) to help recover traumatized residents of Selayar Regency after the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) earthquake.

Acting Head of BNPB Disaster Data and Communication Center Abdul Muhahari said, six trauma healing team members were brought from Makassar to Selayar Regency using land routes and ferry crossings.

"Arriving in Benteng City, the capital of the Selayar Islands Regency, four people from the Selayar Islands Regency team joined the group and then continued their journey by sea," said Abdul Muhari in his statement, Thursday, December 23.

Abdul Muhari revealed, the trauma healing team said that his party would later provide short training to the team from representatives of the Selayar Islands Regency to assist communities who are still traumatized.

"This method is used considering the location is an archipelago and the travel time is long," he said.

In addition, the team will also classify the community according to their level of trauma and provide assistance according to their condition.

Bearing in mind, until now there are still people who are still very afraid and show severe trauma behavior by showing their desire to run to the sea. In fact, said Abdul Muhari, there are also children who always carry pillows above their head for fear of aftershocks.

Furthermore, he said that so far, emergency community evacuation tents were still visible at several points in Lamantau Village, Pasimarannu District.

Based on preliminary data, there are as many as 10,188 residents in the region who choose to temporarily settle in emergency evacuation tents.

"This choice was made by the residents because they are still traumatized after being hit by the M 7.4 earthquake. In addition, most of them are still filled with fear about the earthquake and tsunami that occurred on December 12, 1992, and killed approximately 2,500 people," explained Abdul Muhari.

It is known, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 rocked the East Flores Sea on December 14 last. After that, there were at least 663 aftershocks. The aftershocks showed a downward trend in both intensity and frequency.

The earthquake, which was centered at 7.59 south latitude and 122.24 east longitude, was previously felt strongly by people in 18 districts in 3 provinces, including 9 districts in East Nusa Tenggara, 3 districts/cities in South Sulawesi and 6 districts/cities in Southeast Sulawesi.

In addition, the earthquake, which was followed by a tsunami early warning from the BMKG, also traumatized some residents in the Selayar Islands Regency. The trauma in question is the residents' memories of the strong earthquake that occurred on December 12, 1992 and triggered a tsunami that also affected the Selayar Islands.