Papua New Guinea (PNG) - Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

Papua New Guinea earthquake: Huge quake hits just 9 days after 55 dead in gigantic tremor

Sakura Evans — Wed, 07 Mar 2018 10:15:00 +0000

AT LEAST 18 people have been killed after a strong earthquake aftershock hit Papua New Guinea’s mainland, it has been reported.

AFP/GETTY

At least 18 people have been killed after a strong earthquake aftershock hit Papua New Guinea.

An official said a magnitude 6.7 quake that struck Papua New Guinea’s mountainous Southern Highlands early today, adding to the death toll from a larger quake nine days ago.

The larger earthquake killed at least 67 people.

The latest quake, which struck shortly after midnight local time, was a severe aftershock.

It was also in an area badly damaged by a magnitude 7.5 quake that flattened villages and caused landslides, killing at least 55 people.

William Bando, Hela Province administrator, said: “I have just received reports that 18 people were killed last night.

“It appears Hides was hardest hit.

“We haven’t heard about potential casualties there yet, but it is a big village with many people.”

Authorities and aid workers have struggled to reach the rugged highland area to assess the extent of the damage of February 26th’s first earthquake and deliver aid to locals.

Landslides, blocked roads, cracked airstrips and damaged telecommunication links have hampered efforts by authorities to offer an exact death toll and deliver supplies to more than 150,000 people that agencies estimate are in need of aid.

Today, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said critical relief supplies were finally flowing into devastated areas of Papua New Guinea.

Aid had yet to reach isolated parts of the Southern Highlands, Western, Enga and Hela provinces.

Prior to the latest aftershock, Mr O’Neill seemed pleased to report food, water and medicine were starting to get through, with aircraft ferrying supplies to Moro and Mendi airports in the Southern Highlands.

AFP/GETTY

The Red Cross have made a huge effort to reach all earthquake victims in Papua New Guinea

He said: “We are now in the process of delivering emergency supplies.

“Over the last few days, we’ve been working with the Australian Government, with Exxon(Mobil), with Oil Search and Ok Tedi in particular, in making sure that immediate assistance required by the communities is delivered.”

Australia and New Zealand have pledged aid, while Israel has delivered 40 generators to help restore power.

Red Cross’ PNG secretary general, Uvenama Rova, said the rugged terrain has made delivering relief supplies difficult with the Red Cross working to reach the Nipa-Kutubu district near the epicentre to assess damage and needs.

AFP/GETTY

Communities and charities are banding together on relief efforts for Papua New Guinea

Last month’s earthquake was the largest to hit the seismically-active highlands in nearly a century.

Papua New Guinea was hit just moments after a smaller seismic event struck Japan, increasing fears of a natural disaster impacting the dangerous region dubbed the ‘Ring of Fire’.

A further 26 quakes, all with an average magnitude of five, rocked the island in the aftermath of the initial hit.

Papua New Guinea rests on the so-called ‘Ring of Fire’ – a hotbed of seismic activity surrounding a tectonic plate that spans the pacific.

The ‘Ring’ is responsible for 90 per cent of the world’s earthquakes.

The post Papua New Guinea earthquake: Huge quake hits just 9 days after 55 dead in gigantic tremor first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Week After Papua New Guinea Quake, Nearly 150,000 People in Urgent Need of Aid

Alison Bevege — Sun, 04 Mar 2018 13:43:11 +0000

FILE PHOTO: A local stands next to a damaged house near a landslide in the town of Tari after an earthquake struck Papua New Guinea’s Southern Highlands in this image taken February 27, 2018 obtained from social media. Francis Ambrose/via REUTERSREUTERS

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Almost a week after a deadly quake struck the rugged Papua New Guinea highlands, nearly 150,000 people remain in urgent need of emergency supplies as damaged roads and landslides have hampered the delivery of aid to isolated communities, agencies have said.

The quake destroyed or damaged the homes of around 7000 people, while 147,000 were in severe need of food, water and sanitation, the director of the International Red Cross in PNG, Udaya Regmi, told Reuters on Sunday.

Landslides have cut roads, preventing the delivery of aid to several places where it’s most needed.

“The challenge is road access, it’s still not accessible to trucks and four-wheel drives,” Regmi said.

“Big trucks cannot go there. It’s one of the reasons the food is becoming less and less. There are no fears of starvation yet but we’ve not got the full picture.”

Papua New Guinea (PNG) declared a state of emergency across the earthquake-hit region last week but the scale of the disaster will not be known until relief workers and authorities can complete their assessments in the area.

A report by the World Food Program for the United Nations two days after the 7.5 magnitude quake hit the Southern Highlands on February 26 estimated 465,000 people were exposed to the disaster of which 143,000 needed urgent humanitarian assistance and 64,000 were suffering from extreme food insecurity.

Anna Bryan, program director for CARE International in PNG, said the impact of the earthquake could not be understood by the initial death toll of 31 people as tens of thousands of people uninjured by the actual quake have been cut off from food, drinking water, communications and medical help for a week.

“Public health and public hygiene are now concerns,” she said.

Bryan said rivers dammed by landslides created stagnant water polluted by silt and bacteria, leaving people with the threat of disease.

Aid has been flown in by aircraft but it is not yet known if it has been able to get to all the people in need.

Aftershocks terrified villagers for five days after the initial temblor and only started subsiding on Saturday, multiple sources said.

Julie Sakol a nurse at Mendi General Hospital said on Sunday the aftershocks were slowly decreasing.

“It’s coming every two hours now … the movement of the ground is slowly going down.”

Australian Sally Lloyd who is visiting PNG said villagers were terrified by the constant shaking.

“It is terror,” she said by telephone from Mount Hagen on Sunday. “They think the end of the world is happening.”

Earthquakes are common in Papua New Guinea, which sits on the Pacific Ocean’s “Ring of Fire,” a hotspot for seismic activity due to friction between tectonic plates.

The PNG and Australian governments, the Red Cross and Care International have all provided aid.

Energy firm ExxonMobil which had to declare force majeure on exports from its PNG LNG project in the wake of the earthquake has also donated US$1 million to the humanitarian effort.

Oil company Santos said on Sunday that it will donate US$200,000 to aid agencies in PNG for disaster relief on top of a US$1 million donation it has already provided to Hela Provincial Hospital.

(Reporting by Alison Bevege; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

Source: https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2018-03-04/week-after-papua-new-guinea-quake-nearly-150-000-people-in-urgent-need-of-aid

[Disclaimer]

The post Week After Papua New Guinea Quake, Nearly 150,000 People in Urgent Need of Aid first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.