The Garut Earthquake was so powerful, houses and public facilities in 11 areas of West Java were damaged

Garut Regency is the area most heavily impacted by the earthquake. A total of 49 houses and two public facilities were damaged, while six Garut residents also suffered injuries.

In Tasikmalaya Regency, 10 houses were damaged, in Ciamis Regency (8), Bandung Regency (6), Tasikmalaya City (5), West Bandung Regency (1), and Purwakarta Regency (1).

"In Bandung Regency, Pangandaran Regency, and Sumedang Regency, each has one damaged health facility. Meanwhile, in Cimahi City, one school building was affected," explained Hadi.

Also read: Garut Earthquake: Injured Victims and Damaged Buildings Increase

He added that BPBD Jabar is still coordinating with BPBD officials in 10 regions to collect data on the number of victims and buildings affected. "Data on the number of victims and affected buildings is still dynamic. We and BPBD officials in 11 regions continue to strive to provide assistance to the victims," Hadi added.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief of Garut Police, Commissioner Dhoni Erwanto, explained that 53 buildings were damaged as a result of the M 6.2 earthquake in 16 sub-districts. The majority of the affected buildings suffered minor to moderate damage.

"We have prepared one tanker truck to supply clean water, emergency tents, and other assistance for the victims affected by the earthquake. There were no casualties in this incident in Garut," said Dhoni.

The Head of BPBD for Sumedang Regency, Atang Sutarno, stated that there were cracks in the building of the Sumedang Regional General Hospital on the fifth floor. All patients were then moved to emergency tents in the hospital yard.

"The patients were transferred to emergency tents until early Sunday morning at around 3:00 AM and then returned to a safe location. The rooms on the 5th to 8th floors are temporarily uninhabited by patients," said Atang.

Head of the Geological Agency of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Muhammad Wafid, explained that the location of the earthquake that occurred at 11:29 PM was located at sea at a medium depth, causing tremors to be felt in a fairly wide area in West Java. The morphology of the southern coastal region of West Java is generally in the form of a coastal plain bordered by undulating hill morphology to steep hills in the northern part.

Also read: Garut earthquake causes panic, a number of buildings in the south of West Java are damaged

Wafid revealed that the occurrence of this earthquake was due to subduction activity or also known as intraslab earthquakes with a mechanism of fault uplift. "According to the records of the Geological Agency, the source of intraslab earthquakes in South West Java has caused disasters several times, namely in 1979, 2007, 2017, 2022, and 2023," said Wafid.

He also recommended that houses and public facilities in the South-West Java area be constructed using earthquake-resistant building construction. In addition, the coastal areas of South-West Java are prone to earthquakes and tsunamis, therefore mitigation efforts must be improved through both structural and non-structural measures.