Quake damage to Indonesia’s Lombok exceeds $ 342 m as deaths top 400

Tuesday, 14 August 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

JAKARTA (Reuters): Indonesia’s holiday island of Lombok suffered damage running into more than five trillion rupiah ($342 million) from last week’s huge earthquake, authorities said on Monday, as the death toll climbed to more than 430.

More than 350,000 people fled their homes after the 6.9-magnitude quake to shelter in government-provided tents or makeshift structures in open fields. Authorities say aid is slow in getting to some of the hardest-hit areas as they are remote. “The damage and losses are huge,” Sutopo Nugroho, the spokesman of Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency, said in a statement.

“It will take trillions of rupiah...and a lot of time to heal the lives of the people and the economy of Nusa Tenggara Barat,” he said, referring to the province home to Lombok.

Residential homes and public infrastructure suffered the bulk of the damage, he added.