Around 5,000 people have been evacuated after a magnitude-7.7 earthquake smashed an area in eastern Indonesia, killing at least 51, blocking roads and causing landslides, authorities said on Sunday (August 16, 2026).
People in some areas were left without electricity and telecommunications and at least one emergency access road remained inaccessible. Berton added. The death toll rose by one from Saturday night to Sunday morning.
More than 3,500 military and police officers have been deployed to the region, Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said in a statement. There was no immediate count of those missing, but most of them were trapped under rubble, and more than 1,300 homes were damaged, BNPB said.
Rescuers reached parts of Maumere that had been blocked by landslides, Indonesia’s search and rescue agency said. The East Nusa Tenggara government is considering declaring an emergency for the province, BNPB said, which would allow authorities to mobilise resources and funding. “We need food, drink, medicines, and diapers for the children,” Umri, a resident of Nangahale village on the north coast of Flores, told AFP Survivors were in urgent need of assistance in the form of emergency tents, food, medicines, blankets, camp beds, mats, clean water and electricity generators, Mr.
“I only brought my body,” Abdul Mutas, 63, told Reuters after he and his family slept on a tarp surrounded by trees in the town of Sikka. “The tides were rising, so we ran,” he said, describing their reaction to the quake.
