KOMPAS.com - Geologists have long said Padang, with a population of 900,000, may one day be destroyed by a huge earthquake because of its location. “Padang sits right in front of the area with the greatest potential for an 8.9 magnitude earthquake,” said Danny Hilman Natawidjaja, a geologist at the Indonesian Science Institute, in February.
“The entire city could drown” in a tsunami triggered by such a quake, he warned. Several earthquake-prone parts of the country hold tsunami practice drills, and the national disaster service sends alerts via telephone text messages to subscribers.
But some experts have long said Indonesia needs to do more to reduce the risk of catastrophe. Padang needed to invest in better infrastructure, including more roads and other escape routes, said Hugh Goyder, a consultant for the United Nations’ International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, earlier in the year.
“The road goes parallel to the coast, which means it’s difficult in some areas to get away from the coast,” Goyder
said, adding that in one part of the city, the only escape route is a narrow bridge. Sumatra is home to some of the country’s largest oil fields as well as its oldest and smallest liquefied natural gas terminal, although there were no immediate reports of damage to those facilities.
