Rescuers dig through rubble and landslides after Indonesia quake kills 53

Rescue teams in eastern Indonesia resumed digging through debris and clearing blocked roads on Sunday, following a powerful earthquake that left at least 53 people dead, according to reporting from Thestar. The magnitude-7.7 tremor struck on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026, off the coast of the Flores region in East Nusa Tenggara province, triggering landslides, destroying homes, and forcing thousands of residents to seek temporary shelter outdoors amid fears of rising tides and aftershocks.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the disaster struck at a depth of 10 kilometers at 5:58 a.m. Local time, roughly 68 kilometers northwest of Ende. The initial tremor was followed by hundreds of aftershocks, with authorities recording 995 subsequent tremors, though only 46 were felt by residents. The destruction spanned across six regencies on Flores, a mountainous island in the Sunda chain. In addition to the fatalities, Deputy Health Minister Benjamin Paulus Octavianus reported during a televised meeting that scores sustained injuries and thousands were displaced, as detailed by Yahoo News.

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Search and rescue operations focused heavily on three regencies that remained largely inaccessible after the earthquake: Manggarai, East Manggarai, and Nagekeo. Landslides blocked sections of the Trans-Flores Highway, isolating remote villages.

"We have cleared most landslides and reopened roads to previously isolated villages, although communication disruptions and power outages continue to hamper search efforts,"

Fathur Rahman, head of the Search and Rescue Office in Maumere, via Thestar

The human toll was visible across the island. At the Roman Catholic St. Peter Major Seminary in Sikka, students were attending morning Mass when the roof of an assembly hall collapsed.

"Our students and nuns ran out in panic beneath a collapsing roof,"

Rev. Guidelbertus Tanga, rector of the seminary, via Yahoo News

Tanga added that at least one priest suffered a broken leg after jumping from the second floor of a building during the quake. Other residents described violent and prolonged shaking that forced families outdoors.

"Although I have experienced several earthquakes on Flores island before, this was by far the strongest and longest earthquake I have ever experienced. The shaking was extremely powerful and violent,"

Theresia Uta, resident of Maumere, via Yahoo News

Housing infrastructure suffered widespread damage. BNPB reported that more than 1,300 homes were damaged—with more than two-thirds categorized as severely damaged—alongside health care facilities, schools, and government offices. Abdul Muhari, the National Disaster Management Agency’s chief for disaster prevention, noted that over 900 homes were destroyed and 450 more damaged across East Nusa Tenggara province, driving about 5,000 people into temporary shelters. Meanwhile, roughly 2,000 residents of Nagekeo regency evacuated as a precautionary measure.

Relief efforts encountered severe logistical hurdles due to damaged terrain and disrupted communications. BNPB deployed a helicopter and emergency response teams, while aid packages were dispatched to the island. Workers distributed rice, ready-to-eat meals, drinking water, blankets, and medicine to displaced families.

The seismic event was not isolated to Flores. Just hours after the first earthquake, a 6.9-magnitude quake rattled Northern Sumatra, followed later by a 5.7-magnitude quake off the Minahasa Peninsula. Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, sits along the Pacific "Ring of Fire," a horseshoe-shaped arc of seismic faults and volcanoes responsible for frequent tectonic activity. The region has previously suffered catastrophic disasters, including a 1992 earthquake and tsunami on Flores that killed about 2,500 people, the 2018 Sulawesi disaster, and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.