Tremors in various parts of S'pore following quake in Indonesia

Tremors in various parts of S'pore following quake in Indonesia
By Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 30 September 2009 1923 hrs

	Photos 1 of 1 A quake reading on a seismograph.

SINGAPORE: Singaporeans island-wide literally felt the earth move under their feet on Wednesday evening as tremors shook various parts of the island - from Redhill in central Singapore to Pasir Ris in the northeast.

This came after a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.6 hit Indonesia.

Singapore's Meteorological Services confirmed that the earthquake struck at about 6.15pm on Wednesday in the waters off Southern Sumatra, about 530 kilometres from Singapore.

Minutes later, MediaCorp's news hotline started ringing as Singaporeans reported feeling tremors that lasted anywhere between 30 seconds and a few minutes.

The Police and SCDF said they received more than 150 calls about the quake.

Videos sent in by viewers showed chandeliers swaying, as were other objects.

The calls came from across the island - Ang Mo Kio in the central north, Marine Parade in the east, Punggol in the northeast and Raffles Place in the central business district.

Callers said that some workers in the Suntec area and Changi Business Park were evacuated.

One man said: "There were a lot of office people on the roadside. We felt it for about five to ten minutes." Others said their neighbours were screaming and shouting.

Rajakumar Choppa who works at Expo Changi Business Park, said: "Around 6pm, we felt some kind of a building shake. I felt it three times actually and then we all stood up and rushed downstairs because there was some fire alarm in the building.

"When we got downstairs, there was a crowd. We were all watching and not knowing what was happening. I was able to see the building literally shaking."

Callers also reported jams in the Causeway area as the bridge was shaking.

Experts MediaCorp spoke to said the situation was bad.

Professor Kerry Sieh, professor of Geology, Earth Observatory of Singapore, NTU, said: "It's definitely getting worse. The earthquake sequence began in 2000 with a 7.9 about 800 km away from the south of Singapore. You haven't felt this big of a sequence of earthquakes that is many large earthquakes for at least 175 years."

A tsunami warning was initially issued after the quake but later withdrawn.

- CNA/vm

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Strong quake strikes Indonesia

Strong quake strikes Indonesia

Reuters  Published: Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Metro TV via Reuters TV A video grab shows a foot among the wreckage of a building following an earthquake in Padang on Indonesia's Sumatra island, Sept. 30, 2009.

PADANG, Indonesia -- A powerful earthquake off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island has killed 13 people, a health ministry official said on Wednesday.
The earthquake struck off the city of Padang on the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island, damaging houses, toppling bridges and starting fires.
The 7.6 magnitude quake was felt around the region, with some high-rise buildings in Singapore, 440 km (275 miles) to the northeast, evacuating staff. Office buildings also shook in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre cancelled an earlier tsunami alert.
"Hundreds of houses have been damaged along the road. There are some fires, bridges are cut and there is extreme panic here," said a Reuters witness in the city, who also said broken water pipes had triggered flooding.
His mobile phone was then cut off and officials said power had been severed in the city. A resident called Adi later told Indonesia's Metro Television there was devastation around him.
"For now I can't see dead bodies, just collapsed houses. Some half destroyed, others completely. People are standing around too scared to go back inside. They fear a tsunami," said Adi.
"No help has arrived yet. I can see small children standing around carrying blankets. Some people are looking for relatives but all the lights have gone out completely."
Online news agency Detik.com said a hospital and a large market had also been damaged in the city.
Sumatra is home to some of the country's largest oil fields as well as its oldest and smallest liquefied natural gas terminal, although there were no immediate reports of damage to those facilities.
Padang, the capital of Indonesia's West Sumatra province, sits on one of the world's most active fault lines along the "Ring of Fire" where the Indo-Australia plate grinds against the Eurasia plate to create regular tremors and sometimes quakes.
A 9.15 magnitude quake, with its epicentre roughly 600 km (373 miles) northwest of Padang, caused the 2004 tsunami which killed 232,000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, and other countries across the Indian Ocean.
The depth of Wednesday's earthquake was 85 km (53 miles), the United States Geological Survey said. It revised down the magnitude of the quake from 7.9 to 7.6.
A series of tsunamis earlier on Wednesday smashed into the Pacific island nations of American and Western Samoa, and Tonga killing possibly more than 100 people, some washed out to sea, destroying villages and injuring hundreds.
Geologists have long said Padang may one day be destroyed by a huge earthquake because of its location.
"Padang sits right in front of the area with the greatest potential for an 8.9 magnitude earthquake," said Danny Hilman Natawidjaja, a geologist at the Indonesian Science Institute, in February.
"The entire city could drown" in a tsunami triggered by such a quake, he warned.
Several earthquake-prone parts of the country hold tsunami practice drills, and the national disaster service sends alerts via telephone text messages to subscribers.
But some experts have long said Indonesia needs to do more to reduce the risk of catastrophe.
Padang needed to invest in better infrastructure, including more roads and other escape routes, said Hugh Goyder, a consultant for the United Nations' International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, earlier in the year.
"The road goes parallel to the coast, which means it's difficult in some areas to get away from the coast," Mr. Goyder said, adding that in one part of the city, the only escape route was a narrow bridge.
© Thomson Reuters 2009


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