BMKG Natural Disaster Study For East Java Panics Indonesian Netizens

KOMPAS.com – The Meteorological, Climatology and Geophysics Agency or BMKG panicked some Indonesian netizens, after an agency study brought up a worst case scenario of East Java getting struck by a major earthquake and tsunami.

The analysis comes less than two months after a 6.1 Richter scale earthquake shook the province last April, killing eight people and injuring dozens of others.

Also read: Earthquake in Indonesia’s East Java Province Kills Eight, Injures 25

The BNKG study raised the worst case scenario “that an 8.7 Richter scale [megathrust] earthquake will strike off Trenggalek Regency,,” during a webinar on dealing with the effects of earthquakes and tsunamis in East Java on Friday.

"The earthquake will bring about [tsunami] waves as high as 26-29 meters and leave behind inundations of up to 22 meters deep."

A pandora’s box of panic

The study found its way to Indonesian netizens, who expressed their panic on social media. They included Tik Tok user Wong Blitar, who is presumably from the East Java city of Blitar.

@cacahoo

pasrah ya Allah... lindungilah semua umatmu di muka bumi ini ????????????##blitar ##ponggok ##fyp?

? original sound - Wong Blitar????????

“I am resigned [to my fate] ya Allah…[please] protect all your creatures on this earth,” she captioned to a voiceover of the BMKG report in her account @cacahoo.

Since its posting on Friday, the post has garnered 2.3 million views and received 124,800 likes. It was also forwarded 33,400 times and gotten 7,114 comments.

Others shared Wong Blitar’s sentiments. “Ya Allah, I hope [this disaster] will not happen,” said fellow netizen user2945508185729, a user of an unknown social media apps.

Another social media denizen identifying herself as Ria Jessica said “[I hope] Pasuruan and the nearby areas, as well as the rest of East Java will be protected by Allah, Amen and best regards from a migrant worker in the Middle East.”

Taking precautions

BMKG Earthquake and Tsunami Mitigation head Daryono attempted to ease public concerns. “The public has no need to fear from a tsunami [and earthquake] striking East Java,” he said to Kompas.com.

“The worst case scenario was made to design public safety and mitigation measures such as quake-proof schools, installing warning sirens, installing information gathering and tsunami warning equipment, and tracing tsunami prone areas. The information was not made to spread mass panic.”

Also read: 6.2 Richter Scale Earthquake Strikes East Java, Other Indonesian Provinces