We Were Having an Earthquake

[Astra_Jingga]

First of all, I don't know if this the right section for posting something like this.

I'm sorry if it turns out to be the wrong section, and for the moderators; feel free to move this thread to a more appropriate section.

I just would like to let you know that we were having an earthquake here in my place.

On Monday, November 21, we were having an earthquake in Bandung, West Java. I felt the shake on about 11.00 am for almost a minute before it stopped.

That was the only shake I felt on that day, but other people told me they felt another shake on around 01.20 pm the same day.
The earthquake(s) did no damage to my neighborhood and as far as I can tell, to the city's infrastructures.

It wasn't until 06.00 pm that day I found out that the epicenter of the earthquake was in fact near Cianjur, a small town not too far away from Bandung (the capital city of West Java, where I currently live at).

It was a 5.6 earthquake, and destroyed some of the infrastructures in Cianjur, and until 2 days later, almost completely isolated the town since the main roads in and out were all closed off by landslides.

I have a lot of friends in Cianjur and it's neighboring small towns, they were my school mates back in the 80's and 90's. To my relief, I found that most of them and their families are okay.

I still don't know however, if my late grandparents' house survived the earthquake. The old house is situated not far from Cianjur, maybe around 7 to 10 km away (to think that the small town of Cipanas, around 20 km away from Cianjur was almost isolated as well due to the landslides closed off most of it's main roads).

Still, a disaster is a disaster nonetheless, according to the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB), by yesterday, November 24, the number of fatalities reached 271 people while 40 people are still missing, and more than 2,000 have been injured. In addition, 61,908 people have been displaced, while 22,241 houses have been seriously damaged, 11,641 moderately damaged, and 22,090 slightly damaged.

To think that just right a moment before I find out about the exact location of the epicentre of the Monday earthquake, my master scolded me for complaining about a slight of body ache I was having due to the work I did that day;

'You're a man, a slight body ache is nothing compared to what others must now endure!', he said. It was also him who then told me for the first time that the epicenter of the earthquake we felt earlier that day was actually in Cianjur...

Indonesia quake kills over 160, search for survivors continues

A powerful earthquake killed more than 160 people in Indonesia's West Java province on Monday, with rescuers searching for survivors trapped under the rubble amid a series of aftershocks.

www.reuters.com

 

[Wind7]

First of all, I don't know if this the right section for posting something like this.

I'm sorry if it turns out to be the wrong section, and for the moderators; feel free to move this thread to a more appropriate section.

I just would like to let you know that we were having an earthquake here in my place.

On Monday, November 21, we were having an earthquake in Bandung, West Java. I felt the shake on about 11.00 am for almost a minute before it stopped.

That was the only shake I felt on that day, but other people told me they felt another shake on around 01.20 pm the same day.
The earthquake(s) did no damage to my neighborhood and as far as I can tell, to the city's infrastructures.

It wasn't until 06.00 pm that day I found out that the epicenter of the earthquake was in fact near Cianjur, a small town not too far away from Bandung (the capital city of West Java, where I currently live at).

It was a 5.6 earthquake, and destroyed some of the infrastructures in Cianjur, and until 2 days later, almost completely isolated the town since the main roads in and out were all closed off by landslides.

I have a lot of friends in Cianjur and it's neighboring small towns, they were my school mates back in the 80's and 90's. To my relief, I found that most of them and their families are okay.

I still don't know however, if my late grandparents' house survived the earthquake. The old house is situated not far from Cianjur, maybe around 7 to 10 km away (to think that the small town of Cipanas, around 20 km away from Cianjur was almost isolated as well due to the landslides closed off most of it's main roads).

Still, a disaster is a disaster nonetheless, according to the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB), by yesterday, November 24, the number of fatalities reached 271 people while 40 people are still missing, and more than 2,000 have been injured. In addition, 61,908 people have been displaced, while 22,241 houses have been seriously damaged, 11,641 moderately damaged, and 22,090 slightly damaged.

To think that just right a moment before I find out about the exact location of the epicentre of the Monday earthquake, my master scolded me for complaining about a slight of body ache I was having due to the work I did that day;

'You're a man, a slight body ache is nothing compared to what others must now endure!', he said. It was also him who then told me for the first time that the epicenter of the earthquake we felt earlier that day was actually in Cianjur...

Indonesia quake kills over 160, search for survivors continues

A powerful earthquake killed more than 160 people in Indonesia's West Java province on Monday, with rescuers searching for survivors trapped under the rubble amid a series of aftershocks.

www.reuters.com

@Astra_Jingga This is the perfect place to post this content so, no worries there.

Sorry to hear of so many being badly affected by this earthquake,
it seems to be getting more and more common place around our world to hear of these things happening.

 

[Astra_Jingga]

It was a tectonic earthquake caused by some active fault (Cimandiri fault).

But at the first glance on the map showing the epicenter of the earthquake, I was actually afraid of something else.

The epicenter is shown to be slightly west of Cianjur, and around that spot, we also have Gede Pangrango mountain, the largest volcanic mountain in the area, and it is still active. I was worried the earthquake would also affect the volcanic activities there.

Indonesian Center For Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation under the Geological Agency of the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources however, announced that on Tuesday November 22, Gede Pangrango mountain activities are still in normal level.

I hope it'd stay that way as a volcanic eruption is going to be the last thing we need right now, we have enough damage already in the area.

Sorry to hear of so many being badly affected by this earthquake,

Thank you, but it's okay... I guess...

Something those who live in Indonesia need to understand (and sometimes, endure), is the fact that Indonesia sits on top of active tectonic plates that in turn gave us many active volcanoes as well. It says only one thing; that we really need to be aware of the consequencies of living in such a region.

From what I gathered, our overall city planning is still a mess when it comes to disaster countermeasure layouts. It can be fatal, especially in coastal and mountainous regions such as Sukabumi (West Java South Coast), and Cianjur-Cipanas.

Many of our cities are still overcrowded and crammed with buildings, makes it rather hard for the people to try to save themselves whenever something happened.

We need to free more [safe] space between buildings, in my opinion, so people would have enough place to run to in case of emergency, as well as enabling rescue vehicles to pass trough without much hindrances.

Well... What can I say. Java Island is the most populated island in Indonesia with half (maybe more) of Indonesian population living here. Re-planning won't be something easy, but I do hope we can start something better with Cianjur re-building process.

it seems to be getting more and more common place around our world to hear of these things happening.

Ah, you're right.

I don't know...

I do know that old devices tend to break down a lot. Maybe it's because of our Earth is old that it's been having more 'break downs' than it used to be, so to say...(?)

To think that back in the day (around 90's and early 2000's) we rarely had major disasters in Indonesia.

It changed I guess, after on December 2004 we have some huge tsunami wiped out the northern tip of Sumatera Island; it seemed we start to have more natural disasters afterwards, like one following after the other.

As to hearing Cianjur region being shocked by a 5.6 magnitude earthquake like that alone, was like having a sudden slap in the face to me so to say.

I lived my early years there for almost 15 years (1978-1993) and we've never had anything so damaging happened during those years.

Only once, around 1993 or 1994, we were having Gede Pangrango mountain activities increased to a level that the people inside of the eruption perimeter were being given alert warning by the local government, but the activities then slowly subsided by itself.

One of the stories has it that there was a ritual taken place at the time to appease the spirit of the mountain, so to say, since Gede Pangrango mountain is considered to be some kind of sacred ground by some-if not most, Sundanese.