Yogyakarta hit with massive earthquake

Yogyakarta in Central Java has been hit with a massive earthquake. Early this morning a 6.2 quake hit close to the city, leaving 2,000 people dead and many injured.

Here is Bali we didn’t feel anything. Indonesia gets earthquakes all the time, last week there was one in Banda, Eastern Indonesia. The real trouble is when a big quake hits close to a city. For some reason Indonesians build houses and hotels out of cement. I used to live on the west coast of the US, where everything, including multi-storey shopping centers have a wooden skeleton. Reason for that is that wood can flex, rather than disintegrate. Over here they don’t seem to have grasped that concept. A few months back I visited a new property in Kuta, and asked the owner what building precautions he took, considering we are on a fault line. He said he didn’t really know.

Let’s hope the aftershocks don’t kill any more people in Yogya. Remember, if you are inside a building during an earthquake, get out. Do not use elevators, or wooden stairs. If you can’t escape, lay next to a solid object like a stone counter / bathtub / boxes of computer paper / filing cabinets.