Sulawesi island residents fled coastal areas Sunday in fear of a tsunami after an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 struck off the Indonesian island.

|PIC1|Indonesian officials — who have been under fire for failing to warn people ahead of last week's deadly tsunami on Java island — recorded the quake at 6.6 and said it had the potential to trigger destructive waves, The Associated Press reported.

They later said no tsunami was generated and told residents to return home.

The magnitude 6.1 quake, which the U.S. Geological Survey says struck 67 miles south of Gorontalo in northern Sulawesi, comes less than a week after last Monday’s quake-triggered tsunami crashed into the southern coast of Java, pummeled a nearly 200-mile stretch of coastline, and killed at least 668 people.

Since then, survivors whose homes were smashed have been scouring the beaches for nails, wood, tin — anything they could use to start rebuilding their lives – while others continued to mourn over the deaths of their loved ones.

Relief groups, meanwhile, have been expanding efforts to help Indonesian tsunami victims as some 50,000 people have reportedly became homeless as a consequence of the tsunami.

|TOP|Church World Service-Indonesia reported Thursday that it was beginning to assist disaster victims through a field kitchen – providing rice, cooking oil, eggs, soy sauce, sugar, mineral water, instant noodles, vegetables, and kerosene to support 50 households in Adipala village, Cilacap district, Central Java.

The group’s emergency response team is also bringing food items (baby biscuit, oil, canned food, instant noodle, salt, and sugar) for approximately 200 households. The team includes a water and sanitation specialist from Norwegian Church Aid who will assess water and sanitation needs.

Medical relief was a focus of Operation Blessing International, which arrived in southern Java to treat victims ten hours after the tsunami hit. By the second day, ten OB doctors and four nurses treated 306 patients in the seaside villages west of Pangandaran.

|AD|“The people of Indonesia are suffering from Monday’s disaster and terrorised over what might happen next,” said Operation Blessing President Bill Horan on Wednesday, as reported by OBI. “But Operation Blessing teams remain in the field.”

OBI Indonesia teams are using four vehicles to transport injured victims to the clinic and deliver emergency packs filled with food, water and emergency aid items to survivors.

On Thursday, Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) reported that it had sent an emergency grant of US $74,328 (GBP 40,000) to its partner, Jesuit Refugee Service, and $55,746 (GBP 30,000) to Karina-Kas, the local Caritas in the Archdiocese of Semarang, in addition to distributing food, tents and medicine through Indonesian partners.

Other Christian groups serving Indonesia tsunami victims include Action by Churches Together (ACT) members Yayasan Tanggul Bencana di Indonesia (YTBI-ACT) and YAKKUM Emergency Aid (YEU-ACT) and Catholic Relief Services.




[Editor's Note: Joseph Alvarez in Washington DC, USA contributed to this report.]




Michelle Vu
Christian Today Correspondent