The authorities readied planes to deliver aid such as food and tents, the chief of the country’s disaster mitigation agency Suharyanto said late on Sunday. The quake damaged around 500 homes, he said.
Indonesia will also build an emergency field hospital in several areas, said Benjamin Paulus Octavianus, the country’s deputy health minister.
Neurosurgeons and orthopaedic surgeons are needed to treat head trauma and broken bones, Benjamin said.
“I DON’T THINK ABOUT THAT ANYMORE”
In Jakarta, about 1,500km west of the disaster zone, President Prabowo Subianto is expected on Monday to preside over celebrations marking Indonesia’s independence from Japanese rule in 1945.
Residents fleeing from an Ende village in fear of tsunamis brought their clothes and mattresses to higher ground.
Asked about how he felt about the Independence Day celebrations, one resident, Gervas, 42, said: “I don’t think about that anymore … I just think about the safety of my wife and four-year-old twins.”