Beware Of Aftershocks, Lembantongoa Sigi Residents Refuge To Open Places

Illustration of earthquakes. (Special)

JAKARTA - Residents of Lembantongoa Village, Sigi Regency, Central Sulawesi until 19:00 WITA took refuge in an open field after a magnitude 5.3 earthquake centered in the district as a form of awareness of aftershocks.

"The latest situation is that residents are in their respective yards and there are also those who set up refugee tents on the football field," said Lembantongoa Village Head Arman when contacted by Antara from Palu, Sunday.

He stated that currently there is a power outage in Lembantongoa, and residents prioritize the children and the elderly (elderly) to be evacuated to refugee camps.

Reportedly, the connecting route between villages at kilometer 4 Lembantongoa Village was cut off due to the impact of the earthquake shock, besides that from the data collection on the impact carried out by the local village head, around 28 houses were damaged, and nine houses were severely damaged.

"It is possible that there are still damaged houses, because until tonight, residents are still feeling shocks," he said.

According to the results of monitoring, BMKG aftershocks were carried out in Sigi until tonight there were 25 aftershocks with varying magnitudes.

"Strong aftershocks were felt until this evening with a magnitude of 5.3, then 4.8 and 2.4 at 19:17 WITA," said Head of the BMKG Data and Information Section of Class I Geophysics Station Palu Hendrik Leopatty.

BMKG also noted that the earthquake occurred in Parigi Moutong Regency with a magnitude of 5.2 on Sunday (red) centered in Torue, Torue District with a shallow earthquake epicenter of 10 kilometers.

BMKG appealed to residents to remain vigilant, and before returning to the house, make sure the building does not crack.

"Stay alert to aftershocks. People should not be influenced by issues that cannot be justified. We always update information about earthquakes, we should obtain information from the BMKG or the local Government (Pemda)," he said.