3 dead after magnitude 7.6 quake hits remote part of Papua New Guinea

• Image Credit: Google

• Sep 11, 2022 | Guriya Khatun

Masange stated that it would take some time to determine the exact scope of the casualties and property destruction in the area.

Digital Desk: Authorities report that at least three people have died after a strong earthquake struck a rural area of Papua New Guinea early on Sunday. The magnitude 7.6 earthquake that shook the Pacific nation also caused infrastructure damage and other injuries.

The three victims perished in a landslide near the gold-mining town of Wau, according to Charley Masange, the disaster director for the province of Morobe. According to Masange, other people had suffered injuries from falling objects or debris, and some hospitals, residences, rural roads, and highways had suffered damage.

Masange noted that it would take some time to determine the exact scope of the casualties and property destruction in the area.

However, he said that considering the magnitude of the earthquake, the region's sparse and dispersed population and the absence of substantial structures close to the epicentre in the country's largely underdeveloped highlands may have contributed to averting a worse catastrophe. One inhabitant of the hamlet nearest to the epicentre spoke to the AP to recount his experience.

When the earthquake hit, Renagi Ravu was having a meeting with two of his coworkers in his Kainantu house. As dishes and cups fell from his shelves to the floor as Ravu attempted to stand up from his chair but struggled to keep his balance, he said, ending up in a sort of group hug with his coworkers. His two young children, aged 2 and 9, had breakfast and drinks on the floor.

Geologist Ravu claimed that he made an effort to calm everyone down while the shaking persisted for more than a minute. About 10,000 people, according to Ravu, reside in and near his town, which is situated 66 kilometres (41 miles) from the epicentre of the earthquake.

He claimed that people were uneasy.                                                                                     

Although earthquakes are frequently felt in this area, they typically don't stay as long or are as severe as this one, according to Ravu. It was extremely arduous.

Ravu was assessing the damage to his house, which, based on the odour, he claimed likely included a broken sewer pipe. He claimed that while friends in other parts of Kainantu had texted him to describe crumbling roads, busted pipes, and falling debris, they had not mentioned significant building collapses or injuries.

He observed that "they are beginning to tidy up their homes and the streets." He continued by saying that it appears that communication has been impacted and that some cell towers have likely toppled.

At least 125 people were killed by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake that struck the country's central area in 2018. Assessments of the extent of the damage and injuries were delayed after that earthquake, which struck distant and underdeveloped areas.

Seismologist Felix Taranu of the Geophysical Observatory in Port Moresby, the nation's capital, said it was too early to determine the entire effects of Sunday's earthquake, despite the fact that its severity indicated it "most certainly caused major damage."

The earthquake struck at 9:46 am local time at a depth of 90 kilometres, according to the US Geological Survey (56 miles). According to NOAA, the area was not in danger from a tsunami. East of Indonesia and north of eastern Australia, in the eastern part of the island of New Guinea, is where Papua New Guinea is situated. It is situated on the "Ring of Fire" in the Pacific, a network of seismic faults that surrounds the ocean and is the site of many of the world's earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.