LCMS relief workers helping Indonesians recover from the Dec. 26 tsunami say they are safe after another massive earthquake rocked the island nation March 28, but added that they may consider stepping up their timetable as a result of the aftershock.
Dennis Denow, who is directing relief work there for LCMS World Relief/Human Care and LCMS World Mission, said in an e-mail to World Relief/Human Care that he and those working with him are safe after the latest earthquake.
Registering between 8.5 and 8.7 on the Richter scale, that quake hit as this Reporter was being prepared for the printer. Initial reports said that it hit Nias Island hardest, with more than 200 dead there. Another 100 were reported killed on the island of Simeulue.
“We have been working to start several projects for tsunami survivors on Nias,” Denow wrote in his e-mail. “With reports of severe damage and loss of life on Gunungsitoli, the capital city on Nias, we may consider accelerating our timetable for providing assistance there.”
The Associated Press reported that the recent quake’s epicenter was 19 miles under the bed of the Indian Ocean, roughly 155 miles from Banda Aceh, capital of Sumatra Island’s Aceh province. That put it about 110 miles south of the epicenter of the December quake that caused the tsunami responsible for more than 300,000 dead or missing in 11 countries.
Posted March 30, 2005
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