Indonesia Earthquake Death Toll Hits 47 as Second Major Quake Strikes Sumatra

The magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck off Indonesia's Flores Island before dawn Saturday has killed at least 47 people, according to CNN, citing the country's disaster mitigation agency BNPB. Other outlets, including CNBC, NBC News and the Mirror, reported an official BNPB toll of 38 as of a Saturday afternoon press conference. The gap reflects how fast the numbers are moving, not a factual dispute.

BNPB chief Suharyanto told a televised press conference that as of 3 p.m. local time Saturday, the confirmed count stood at 38 dead, two people seriously injured and 11 with minor injuries, with roughly 2,000 residents having fled to higher ground. CNN's later figure of 47 dead and 50 injured or severely injured came in a subsequent Saturday evening update from the same agency, suggesting the toll kept climbing through the day as rescuers worked through debris.

The quake hit at 15 kilometers depth about 68 kilometers northwest of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara province, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, striking shortly before 5 a.m. local time. A tsunami warning covering East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi provinces was lifted roughly three hours later, after waves under three feet were recorded in a handful of coastal spots including Maurole and Ende, according to Indonesia's meteorology agency BMKG.

Rescuers still can't reach the epicenter region

The worst-hit town so far is Maumere, the main port town in Sikka Regency, where rescuers found 20 dead, six injured and two people trapped under rubble, according to Fathur Rahman, head of the local search and rescue office, speaking to Reuters. Video verified by Reuters showed part of the Lorens Say port terminal collapsing onto passengers waiting to board an inter-island ferry, throwing some into the water when a gangway gave way, according to the Mirror.

Nagekeo, the regency closest to the epicenter, remained cut off Saturday. Landslides blocked road access and communications signals were down, forcing rescue teams to attempt a ferry route instead, Fathur told Reuters. That means the true toll in the hardest-hit area is still unknown. BNPB's public numbers may not yet reflect casualties there.

East Nusa Tenggara Governor Emanuel Melkiades Laka Lena said at least five people died from collapsing rubble while they slept, according to CNBC. At St. Peter Major Seminary in Sikka, students and nuns fled a collapsing assembly hall roof during morning Mass; one priest broke his leg jumping from a second-floor window, according to the seminary's rector, Rev. Guidelbertus Tanga, quoted by NBC News.

A second, unrelated quake hit Sumatra hours later

Saturday afternoon, a separate magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck northern Sumatra at a depth of 158 kilometers, according to the German Research Centre for Geosciences, GFZ. Sumatra sits more than 1,000 miles from Flores. Times of India reported the second quake without any immediately linked casualties, and nothing in current reporting ties the two events beyond Indonesia's location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where multiple tectonic plates collide.

BMKG noted the Flores region was hit by a comparable magnitude-7.5 quake in 1992 that caused extensive destruction, a historical marker officials are using to gauge how this event compares.

What residents described

Theresia Uta, 52, told CNN she was finishing breakfast in Maumere when the shaking started and ran outside to hold onto a tree for ten minutes. "Although I have experienced several earthquakes on Flores island before, this was by far the strongest and longest earthquake I have ever experienced," she said.

Yulian Juita Ekalia, a university lecturer in Ruteng, west of the epicenter, told AFP she dragged her stove outside to cook for fear of aftershocks. "I have never felt an earthquake this big," she said. "It felt like we were on a trampoline."

What's unresolved

The scale of damage in Nagekeo, the region nearest the epicenter, is still not confirmed because rescue teams haven't physically reached it. BNPB reported damage to houses, warehouses and government facilities there based on early assessments, plus power outages and traffic congestion, but a fuller casualty count from that regency has not been released.

Aftershocks are continuing, and BNPB has told residents to stay out of cracked or structurally damaged buildings. With landslides still blocking roads into the epicenter zone, the next real update will come once rescue teams physically break through.