Indonesia Earthquake

On November 21, 2022, Indonesia’s West Java Island was hit by a 5.6 magnitude earthquake. An earthquake’s magnitude scale ranges from 1 through 8, 1 being very light and 8 being extremely severe. Although 5.6 magnitude isn’t too high on the Richter scale, lots of damage was done to Indonesia. The earthquake was located inland, close to many buildings and homes, which caused lots of destruction. The earthquake’s epicenter was just about 6 miles underground and there were as many as 140 aftershocks recorded by November 23, just two days after it happened. This caused significant damage including many missing people and of those found, more than 260 dead and more than 2000 injured. Children are very prone to these earthquakes as they are in many buildings such as schools and about 37% of deceased were children. Since the Indonesian infrastructure was not built with quake-proof designs, there were many destruction of buildings, roads, bridges, and homes — all of which contributing to loss of lives. The Indonesia government, the military, the Red Cross, and other non-governmental organizations are all in Indonesia trying to find and save as many people as possible. Overall, Indonesia is being heavily affected by this earthquake with the death count continuously rising and the impaired infrastructure further affecting the economy. The role of government becomes increasingly more important in situations beyond human control by not only supporting its citizens with daily needs of food, clothing and shelter, but also by working with its allies and making meaningful investment for fixing infrastructure and returning order.