Maumere – Only five days have passed since the powerful earthquake that struck Flores on the morning of Saturday, August 15, with a magnitude of 7.7 .
“The earth continues to shake: there have been more than 1,500 aftershocks, and people are still afraid to return to their homes. The provisional death toll, according to the relevant authorities, speaks of at least 68, with more than 200 people injured and over 4,500 homes damaged, while around 19,000 people have been displaced across different parts of the island.”
Father Luigi Galvani, a Camillian missionary who was in Flores on the day of the earthquake, provided Fides with an update.
“In Maumere, many families, especially the poorest, are afraid to return to their homes and are sleeping outdoors or under makeshift tents, bringing with them children, elderly people and those who are particularly vulnerable,” the missionary continued. He has since returned to Kupang, the capital of East Nusa Tenggara Province, located on the island of Timor, where he has been living for more than a year at the San Camillo Social Center. The center provides accommodation for students, with 43 rooms, and hosts seminars, English courses and meetings. It is also promoting a monthly nutrition program for 150 families in need, 60 of them from a village for people who are blind.
“The most urgent needs include drinking water, food, blankets, tents, medicines and medical assistance. The parishes have become places of welcome and hope. Although several churches have been damaged, the parishes have become centers of shelter, solidarity and listening, especially for families who have lost their homes or who are still unable to return to them.”
“The network of the Catholic Church in Indonesia and our Diocese of Maumere have mobilized to gather information on the damage and coordinate aid in the worst-affected communities,” Father Luigi stressed.
“We were deeply saddened by the news of the death of a seminarian from the St. Petrus Interdiocesan Major Seminary in Ritapiret, who died yesterday at Maumere Hospital from severe injuries sustained during the earthquake. When the earthquake struck, he panicked and jumped from a third-floor window of the seminary. It is a tragedy that has left profound sorrow in the seminary, in the religious communities and throughout the local Church.”
Pope John Paul II visited this important seminary in 1989 and spent a night there. For this reason, the hill of Ritapiret is sometimes informally referred to as “the Vatican of a night.”
“At this time, our Camillian presence is focused above all on the most vulnerable families, the elderly, the sick and people with disabilities, who in an emergency are always at greatest risk of being forgotten. Amid the fear, we want the people of Flores to know that they are not alone.”
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