By SCM International Desk I Monday, August 18, 2026
MAUMERE, Indonesia — A powerful, shallow magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the coast of eastern Indonesia’s Flores Island early Saturday, killing at least 47 people, destroying infrastructure, and triggering hundreds of violent aftershocks across the archipelago.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported that the earthquake struck at 5:58 a.m. local time at a depth of roughly 10 kilometers (6 miles). Its epicenter was located in the Flores Sea, approximately 68 kilometers (42 miles) north-northwest of the city of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara province.
Because of its shallow depth, the intense shaking was felt heavily across eastern Indonesia, including neighbouring West Nusa Tenggara and parts of southern Sulawesi island.
The early-morning temblor sent thousands of panic-stricken residents fleeing into the streets. In coastal communities and regional urban centers like Maumere and Labuan Bajo, homes collapsed, public facilities crumbled, and hospitals were forced to move patients to outdoor tents as aftershocks continued to rock the region.
At the St. Peter Major Seminary in Sikka, students and nuns attending morning Mass scrambled for safety as the roof of their assembly hall caved in. “Our students and nuns ran out in panic beneath a collapsing roof,” said the Rev. Guidelbertus Tanga, rector of the seminary, adding that one priest broke his leg after jumping from a second-floor window.
Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) initially issued a urgent tsunami warning for East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi, and Southeast Sulawesi, ordering residents near coastlines to seek immediate refuge inland or on high ground.
The warning was later canceled after tide gauges recorded localized, non-destructive tsunami waves measuring between 0.5 and 1.6 meters.
However, severe secondary hazards followed on land. Rain-soaked hillsides collapsed under the shaking, generating deadly landslides. In Reok village in Manggarai Regency, rescuers pulled at least eight bodies from mud and debris that engulfed homes.
Lieutenant General Suharyanto, head of Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), confirmed that at least 47 people lost their lives, though officials warned the death toll would almost certainly rise as search teams reached isolated areas.
Over 150 homes were completely flattened, hundreds of public structures damaged, and more than 2,000 residents moved to temporary shelters.
Rescue operations have been severely hampered by geographical obstacles and communication outages. Landslides triggered by the quake blocked vital stretches of the Trans-Flores highway—a 700-kilometer mountain road connecting Labuan Bajo to Larantuka—cutting off supply corridors across Flores Island.
”We are continuing to collect reports of damage and casualties, but there are major communication disruptions,” stated East Nusa Tenggara Police Chief Rudi Darmoko. Heavy earth-moving equipment is struggling to navigate destroyed roads, prompting BNPB to deploy helicopters and rescue vessels to airlift medical personnel, drop relief supplies, and support evacuations in remote regencies.
BMKG reported more than 230 aftershocks in the 24 hours following the main quake, with the strongest measuring magnitude 6.2. Officials have urged citizens to remain outside unstable structures as search-and-rescue teams race against time to pull survivors from the rubble.
Indonesia is an expansive island archipelago home to over 270 million people. Due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”—an arc of intense seismic and volcanic activity encircling the Pacific Basin—the nation experiences frequent earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis.
The island of Flores sits directly along a highly active tectonic zone where the Australian Plate converges with and subducts beneath the Sunda Plate. Offshore north of Flores lies the Flores Back-Arc Thrust, a geological fault system capable of generating shallow, high-magnitude quakes that cause immediate localized destruction and secondary landslides due to the steep mountainous topography of the island.
This region has a tragic history of major seismic disasters:
1992 Flores Earthquake & Tsunami: On December 12, 1992, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the offshore Flores region.
The resulting tsunami produced waves over 25 meters high, killing more than 2,500 people and destroying tens of thousands of structures in Maumere and surrounding islands.
2004 Indian Ocean Disaster: A massive 9.1 magnitude mega-thrust earthquake off the coast of Sumatra triggered a catastrophic tsunami across the Indian Ocean, leaving more than 220,000 dead, predominantly in Indonesia’s Aceh province.
2018 Sulawesi Earthquake & Tsunami: A shallow 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck Palu, Sulawesi, causing severe soil liquefaction and localized tsunami waves that resulted in more than 4,300 deaths.
Indonesia’s island geography makes disaster relief uniquely challenging, as rural provinces rely on single transport arteries and local maritime ports that are easily disrupted during major seismic events.
