Strong quake in Indonesia reach 1.29 mln USD

Material losses caused by a strong earthquake in Indonesia's West Manggarai regency last Saturday totaled 11.6 billion rupiah (about 1.29 million U.S. dollars), an official said here on Wednesday. Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, head of the Data Center, Information and Public Relations at the National Agency of Disaster Management ( BNPB), said in his press statement that based on verification conducted by the BNPB Quick Response Team and the Regional Agency of Disaster Management (BDPB) of West Manggarai Regency, hundreds of houses and public facilities had been damaged. "Houses, schools, worship houses, health facilities were damaged. Total losses are expected to reach 11.6 billion rupiah," said Nugroho, adding that no casualty had been reported so far. The official said the team had combed small islands in other areas to verify impacts of the earthquake. A strong earthquake measuring 6.3 on Richter scale rocked East Nusa Tenggara province at 05:32 local time on Saturday (2032 GMT on Friday). The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said that the tremor was centered at 48 kilometers southwest of West Manggarai area and at a depth of 124 kilometers under seabed.