By Wednesday, a state of emergency was declared, and almost 135,000 people were staying in shelters and evacuation tents.
The agency said many displaced persons are too afraid to return to their homes on the distant Maluku Islands after the realm experienced greater than 1,000 aftershocks from the Sept. 26 magnitude-6.5 quake.
As a results of the strong quake, 37 people died, including several young children, and dozens of others were injured.
According to official data, over 6,000 houses were damaged.
Terrified residents bumped into the streets after the quake triggered landslides that buried a minimum of one among the victims.
The fear of aftershocks was deepened by a stream of hoaxes and faux messages – totally on WhatsApp and other messaging apps – that warned of an approaching quake triggering a tsunami.
“It’s up to you whether you want to believe me or not, but I talked to my relative and apparently Ambon will drown in the next few days,” said one message that spread on WhatsApp.
National disaster mitigation agency spokesman Agus Wibowo said fake news was making a nasty situation worse.
“There are many hoaxes about a larger earthquake and tsunami,” he said. “People are afraid, that’s why they decided to stay in shelters.”
Even some whose homes weren’t damaged by the earthquake refused to return home despite attempts to persuade them it was secure, Wibowo said.
“Many people also believed that they were not allowed to return during the state of emergency, which is actually not true,” he said.
A 12 months has passed in Indonesia because the deadly earthquake and tsunami
A 12 months has passed in Indonesia because the deadly earthquake and tsunami
In 2004, a devastating 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra, triggering a tsunami that killed 220,000 people across the region, including about 170,000 in Indonesia.
This article appeared within the print edition of the South China Morning Post as: Fake news that daunts earthquake victims from returning home
