9324,
owes. mm
Restaurant and Lounge
Authentic Chinese Cuisine
Fresh, Quality Ingredients
947 Franklin Blvd. (near UO) • 343-4480
Individual, Family Style, Banquets to 100, Take Out
Tues.-Thurs. 11-10:30, Fri. 11-11 Sat. 12-11, Sun. 11:30-10
$467
$633
$669
New York $198 Mexico City $199
Los Angeles $156 Lima $613
London $324 Tokyo
Frankfurt $348 Bangkok
Paris $348 Sydney
Fares are roundtrip from Portland. Restrictions apply.
Taxes not included. Fares subject to change.
Eurailpass issued
On-The-Spot
niRAVELCUIS
See the worid your way
1430 S.W. Park Ave.
[On the Park Blocks by PSU]
503-274-2323
800-592-CUTS (2887)
portland@travelcuts.com
ASK US ABOUT OUR EXCLUSIVE FLEXIBLE FARES
www.travelcuts.co m
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE • 4TH DISTRICT 'OREGON
PETER DeFAZIO
AN INVITATION
TO A TOWN HALL MEETING
Due to overwhelming demand, I have scheduled
another Social Security town hall meeting. Please
come to share your thoughts and concerns.
Wednesday, March 30
5:30 - 6:30 PM
Harris Hall
Lane County Courthouse
125 E. 8th Avenue
Eugene
For more information, please call 1-800-944-9603.
This ad was prepared and published at taxpayer expense.
Ngugi wa Thiong’o
Kenyan novelist and human
rights activist
The Role of a Scholar in a Postcolonial World
7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
175 Knight Law Center
1515 Agate St.
Sponsored by llm African Studios Committee,
the International Studies Program, the Oregon
EO/AA/ADA institution committed
to cultural diversity.
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
| Global update |
Indonesia's coast rocked
by destructive earthquake
BY MICHAEL CASEY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — A pow
erful earthquake struck off Indonesia’s
west coast late Monday, killing hun
dreds of people whose homes col
lapsed on them and spreading panic
across the Indian Ocean that another
killer tsunami was on the way. Indone
sia’s vice president predicted up to
2,000 deaths.
But fears of a second tsunami catas
trophe in just over three months eased
within hours, as officials in countries
at risk reported their coasts clear of the
type of quake-spawned waves that
ravaged a dozen countries in Asia and
Africa on Dec. 26.
Almost all the deaths reported in the
hours immediately after Monday’s
quake were on Indonesia’s Nias island,
off Sumatra island’s west coast and
close to the epicenter. Police were
pulling children’s’ bodies out of the
rubble of collapsed houses, and a fire
was reportedly raging in one town.
“It is predicted — and it’s still a
rough estimate — that the number
... of dead may be between 1,000
and 2,000,” Vice President Jusuf
Kalla told the el-Shinta radio sta
tion. He said the estimate was based
on an assessment of damage to
buildings, not bodies counted.
In the town of Gunungsitoli, about
70 percent of buildings collapsed in the
market district, officials said.
“Hundreds of buildings have been
damaged or have collapsed,” said
Agus Mendrofa, the island’s deputy
district head. He told el-Shinta radio
station that at least 296 people had
died in Gunungsitoli.
The MISNA missionary news
agency in Rome, Italy, reported that
a huge fire was raging early Tliesday
in Gunungsitoli.
‘From the window I see very high
flames,” M1SNA quoted Father Ray
mond Laia as saying by telephone
about two miles from the town. “The
town is completely destroyed. 1 repeat,
the town is completely destroyed.”
Another police officer, who identi
fied himself as Nainggolan, said res
cuers were trying to pull people out of
the rubble, and many were still panick
ing because of several aftershocks.
“We are busy now trying to pull
people or bodies of children from the
collapsed building,” said Nainggolan,
who like many Indonesians uses only
one name. "It is very hard also because
there is no power. ”
“The situation here is really messy,”
he said. “Aftershocks keep hitting
every half hour making thousands of
people flee their homes and afraid to
go home.”
Nias, a renowned surfing spot, was
badly hit on Dec. 26, when at least 340
residents were killed and 10,000 were
left homeless.
The only other deaths reported in
Monday’s quake happened in Sri
Lanka, where two people were re
portedly killed during a panicky
evacuation from the coast in a Tamil
rebel-held area.
The U.S. Geological Survey meas
ured Monday’s quake at magnitude
8.7 and said its epicenter was 155
miles south-southeast of Banda Aceh,
the capital of Aceh province on Suma
tra island. It struck just 110 miles
southwest of the 9.0-magnitude quake
of Dec. 26 — the world’s most power
ful in 40 years.
Monday’s wallop, although very
powerful, was but a fraction of the ear
lier quake. In explosive power, Decem
ber’s quake was equal to 100 million
pounds of TNT; it caused the seabed to
spring up as much as 60 feet.
Terrified of a disaster of equal pro
portions, sirens sounded throughout
the region as authorities issued tsuna
mi alerts for six countries after the
quake struck at 11:06 p.m.
Women clutching children ran into
the darkened streets of Banda Aceh,
crying and chanting “Allahu Akbar,” or
“God is Great.” Others grabbed small
bags of clothes and fled their tents and
homes for higher ground.
Another man rushed instead to the
local mosque, saying “Where can I go,
you can’t outrun a tsunami.”
The quake lasted two minutes and
briefly cut electricity in Banda Aceh.
Thousands poured into the streets,
where flickering campfires and motor
bike and car headlights provided the
only lighting.
People grabbed small bags of
clothes as they fled their tents and
homes. Many were crying and
jumping into cars and onto motor
bikes and pedicabs to head for high
er ground. Two women wearing
prayer shawls and sarongs grabbed
a fence to steady themselves.
“People are still traumatized, still
scared; they are running for higher
ground,” said Feri, a 24-year-old aid
volunteer who goes by one name.
Panic gripped at least one relief
camp in Banda Aceh. An Associat
ed Press photographer saw thou
sands fleeing their tents — but with
nowhere to go, they milled in
crowds along the road.
Police with megaphones asked
people not to panic and return to
their tents. After a while, many
started moving back.
In Malaysia, residents fled their
shaking apartments and hotels.
“I was getting ready for bed, and
suddenly, the room started shaking,”
said Jessie Chong, a resident of the
latest city, Kuala Lumpur. “1 thought 1
was hallucinating at first, but then 1
heard my neighbors screaming and
running out.”
In Sri Lanka, President Chandrika
Kumaratunga called an emergency
meeting at her home with Cabinet
members and went on state television
to assure the country “we are taking all
precautionary measures.”
The quake was felt as far away as
Singapore and the Thai capital,
Bangkok, more than 435 miles from
the epicenter.
Preliminary indications were that
energy from Monday’s quake might
be directed toward the southwest,
said Frank Gonzalez, an oceanogra
pher with the National Oceano
graphic and Atmospheric Adminis
tration in Seattle.
The only tsunami reported was a
tiny one — 10 inches — at the Cocos
Islands, 1,400 miles west of Australia.
No damage was reposed.
“It seems this earthquake did
not trigger a tsunami. If it had, the
tsunami would have hit the coast
line of Sumatra by now,” said Prihar
Yadi, a scientist with the Indonesia
Geophysics Agency. “And if there’s
no tsunami on the coastline
near the epicenter of the quake,
there will not be one heading in the
other direction.”
U.S. State Department deputy
spokesman Adam Ereli said U.S. diplo
matic missions in Asia and Africa went
into “battle mode” to respond quickly
to any contingency. Authorities world
wide had been slow to recognize the
magnitude of the Dec. 26 disaster,
which killed at least 175,000 people in
12 Indian Ocean nations and left an
other 106,000 missing.
Officials said after the December
disaster that a tsunami early warn
ing system could have saved many
lives. Such a system exists in the Pa
Second quake
almost as powerful
The second powerful earthquake
in just over three months to strike
the west coast of Indonesia was
among the strongest quakes of
the past century.
LocationMagnitude
1960 Chile
9.5
1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska
1957 Andreanof Islands, Alaska
2004 Off the west coast
of northern Sumatra
1952 Kamchatka, Soviet Union*
1906 Off the coast of Ecuador
2005 Off the west coast
of northern Sumatra
wmammmamm 8.7
1965 Rat Islands, Alaska
1950 Assam-Tibet
BHHHI 8.6
* Now Russia
Number of earthquakes
magnitude 7.0 or greater,
1900 to 2003
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000
SOURCE: U S. Geological Survey AP
Indonesia hit again
An earthquake struck off the
coast of Indonesia's Sumatra
Island on Monday, a little more
than three months since the
devastating Dec. 26 quake.
cific but has not been established in
the Indian Ocean. Japan and the
United States had planned to start
providing tsunami warnings to
countries around the Indian Ocean
this month as a stopgap measure
until the region establishes its own
alert system.
Two aftershocks — one measur
ing 6.0 and another measuring 6.7
— were reported in the same region
late Monday and early Tliesday, the
U.S. Geological Survey said.
At the biggest refugee camp in
Banda Aceh, people milled around
the streets near the local television
network, known as TVR1. Others
huddled around television sets in
cafes for news.
After some time, a voice on the
camp intercom announced that peo
ple could return to their tents and
that there was no tsunami.
OREGON DAILY EMERALD —
independent student newspaper