Port Moresby, Sep 12 (IANS) At least four people killed and several others seriously injured after a massive 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit Papua New Guinea (PNG), authorities said on Monday.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ regional branch in the Asia-Pacific said that among the fatalities were one in the Rai Coast district of the Madang province, and three in the town of Wau of the Morobe province, reports Xinhua news agency.
All were buried in landslides.
Some other people in Morobe were injured due to falling structures or debris, and there was damage reported to health centres, homes, rural roads and highways, according to the provincial disaster management agency.
The regional power grid, Internet cables, and the regional highway were damaged, but regional commercial airports have remained in operation, said the report.
Parts of the Highlands Highway, which connects the second largest city of Lae to the Highlands provinces, were damaged.
Areas along Markham and Ramu in Eastern Highlands were espeinjuredcially affected.
Local newspaper Post-Courier reported on Monday that many shops in Lae remained closed due to their stock being damaged.
PNG Prime Minister James Marape said that national and provincial disaster agencies had begun to assess the damage done to buildings and infrastructure such as roads and power supplies.
Marape said the estimated cost of the damage would not be known until at least Tuesday but assured the public that no expense would be spared to “restore our services and our people’s livelihoods”.
PNG is one of the world’s most geologically and seismically active areas and is usually hit with more than 100 earthquakes of magnitude 5 or greater each year.
Cyclone Nivar made landfall as a severe cyclonic storm near the city of Puducherry in southern India, with winds of up to 130 km per hour (81 miles per hour), said the India Meteorological Department. At least three people were killed and the National Disaster Response Force said over 100,000 people have been evacuated from the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coast.
On its way the cyclone uprooted several trees and power lines in Tamil Nadu’s Cuddalore, Marakkanam and in Puducherry while power supply in several areas was disrupted. The administration is removing the fallen trees and Puducherry Chief Minister V.Narayanasamy told media that power supply will be restored in a phased manner on Thursday itself.
Narayanasamy said, a lot of trees have fallen due to the cyclone and rain. He said low lying areas were inundated and work was on to drain the water. Fallen trees were being removed. “Power supply was disrupted and it will be soon restored in a phased manner in 12 hours”, he said.
Narayanasamy said the assessment will be made and by this afternoon, an estimate of damage will be made. So far, 80 relief camps have been set up in Karaikal. He said, “By Gods grace people of Puducherry escaped the fury of Nivar.” The chief minister also inspected the cyclone damaged areas and urged the people to stay indoors and fishermen not to venture into the seas.
In Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district, police said the fallen trees have been removed to ease the flow of traffic and the officials of power utility were also on the job to restore power supply wherever it got disrupted due to the cyclone.
At Marakkanam near Puducherry, several power poles fell down and the fishermen community requested the Tamil Nadu government to restore the power lines at the earliest.
According to the weather department the cyclone lays centered over coastal Tamil Nadu and Puducherry about 25km north of Puducherry with wind blowing at a speed of 90-100 kmph gusting to 110 kmph. In the suburbs of Tamil Nadu capital Chennai, water got logged due to rains affecting the residents as well as traffic flow.
Andhra Coast Next
Nivar will move northwest wards and weaken further into a cyclonic storm during the next three hours, according to the IMD. The cyclone began its landfall on Wednesday night about 10.30 p.m. after moving at a speed of 16 kmph for six hours.
In an early morning tweet, Puducherry’s Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi said: “Good #MorningNutrition. Puducherry has faced the Cyclone, collectively and resolutely. Making us a stronger and a more experienced team.”
IMD said, “Under its influence rainfall at most/many places with heavy to very heavy fall at a few places with isolated extremely heavy falls are likely to occur over Ranipet, Tiruvannamalai, Tirupattur, Vellore districts of Tamil Nadu and Chittoor, Kurnool, Prakasam and Cuddappa districts of Andhra Pradesh.
Gale wind speed reaching 65-75 kmph gusting to 85 kmph very likely to prevail over interior districts of Ranipet, Tiruvannamalai, Tirupattur, Vellore of Tamil Nadu and Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh in the early morning to forenoon, the weather department said.
The Puducherry government too has announced Thursday as a public holiday. Twenty five teams from National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed on the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Andhra Pradesh.
After almost four years, a major earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale jolted Los Angeles and the areas in Southern California coast on Thursday at 12:29 p.m. and the US Geological Survey reported its epicentre at about 41 miles southwest of Ventura and 85 miles west of LA with 10 miles depth.
"The offshore faults that produced today’s M5.3 quake are part of the system that moves Southern California around a bend of the San Andreas fault," USGS seismologist Lucy Jones tweeted.
The temblor was felt by many residents as far away as Los Angeles, and shaking of buildings was reported by residents in areas such as Tarzana, San Dimas, Long Beach, Pomona and Torrance. However, there was not threat of tsunami, said the Tsunami Warning Center.
LA is equipped to deal with any earnthquake, said the Los Angeles Fire Department, which went into "earthquake mode" and the city has marked neighbourhood assembly zones during an earthquake.
Last time, California region was hit by a massive earthquake in August 2014 measuring 6 magnitude on Richter scale at 3:30 am on a Sunday morning, injuring about 100 residents, igniting fires and damaging many buildings. Estimates show that the loss would be around $1 billion.
Between 1980 and 2013, the financial loss from earthquakes and natural disasters in the US exceeded, after inflation adjustment, the one-billion dollar threshold.
New Billion-Dollar (CPI-Adjusted) Events:
1. Southern Severe Storms and Flooding (April 1980)
2. Midwest/Southeast/Northeast Winter Storm/Coldwave (January 1982)
3. Midwest/Plains/Southeast Tornadoes (April 1982)
4. Severe Storms and Hail (June 1984)
5. Western Severe Storms and Flooding (February 1986)
6. Hurricane Lili (October 2002)
7. Midwest/Plains Severe Weather (July 2003)
8. Midwest/Northeast Severe Storms and Flooding (July 2010)
