Earthquake!

Let sleeping puppies lie!

We were woken at 4am this morning by a magnitude 7.3 earthquake which had its epicentre in Ambunti, roughly 75 miles north-east of our home in Telefomin. It shook us up good and we rushed out of bed to check on Koda, our 5 month old puppy, but he seemed unfazed by it. Koda was very happy to come inside (he generally sleeps in the garden) and got to sleep on the big bed for the rest of the morning. He feel asleep quickly and was soon snoring away whilst I (Shiv) was still a little shaken. We and our neighbours have done walk-arounds of our houses, but there doesn’t seem to be any damage, thankfully.

We’ve heard reports from other Mission organisations of bush houses having collapsed nearer the epicentre, but thankfully so far there are no injuries reported. One of our MAF pilots, based in Wewak, is doing an aerial survey of the Ambunti area to see if any more help is needed due to larger problems like landslides.

When we moved to Telefomin early in 2018, we experienced an even stronger earthquake which caused our water tank to spring leaks, and our neighbours’ header tank to fall off its base and damage the roof. It also caused a lot of landslides near the Mount Bosavi area, which buried families alive and destroyed the crops of whole villages causing a disaster which MAF responded to quickly. We hope and pray this shake was not that bad.