Antara News, Wednesday, February 3, 2010 03:17 WIB
Banda Aceh, Aceh (ANTARA News) - The January 28 earthquake that rocked Central Aceh damaged at least 28 schools, forcing thousands of students to stay at home, a government official said.
The natural disaster also caused local residents and government to suffer material losses totaling Rp73.784 billion (1US$=Rp9,450), the district government`s spokesperson, Windi Darsa, said here Tuesday.
The temblor damaged at least 28 schools and 600 houses, he said.
The earthquake measuring five on the Richter Scale jolted the greater areas of Central Aceh and Bener Meriah districts , about 300 kilometers from Banda Aceh, on January 28.
The tremors caused minor and serious damage to hundreds of houses and tens of schools but nobody was hurt.
"The displaced people are temporarily sheltered in other people`s houses that had remained intact," he said.
Darsa said thousands of students had yet to return to school because their class-rooms had also been damaged.
"Keeping the students at home is the best option because we do not have tents to make emergency class rooms," he said.
The earthquake happened a week ago but the Aceh provincial government had yet to supply locals with tents for building emergency class rooms for the ill-fated students, he said.
Like many other parts of the Indonesian archipelago, Aceh is prone to earthquakes.
On December 26, 2004, the province`s capital city was rocked by a powerful earthquake, which was followed by tsunami.
More than 200,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of others lost their homes.
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