The US State Department has alerted its diplomats in South and Southeast Asia
to respond quickly to a major quake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, deputy
spokesman of the department Adam Ereli said Monday.
"We have sent messages to our embassies in the region asking them to go into
the host governments in order to be in a position to get information about
casualties so that we can be in a position to respond with assistance, if
necessary," Ereli said.
"Our assistant secretaries for East Asia, South Asia, Africa, consular
affairs, our operations center and the secretary's staff have all been
coordinating on this.
"We have been in touch with our consul general in Medan, the area closest to
the earthquake. He reported that the earthquake was felt, but has not seen any
significant damage at this time.
"We have also reached out to NGOs and aid workers in the area, again in an
effort to gather information and to be in a position to act should our
assistance be necessary," the spokesman said.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center called for "immediate action" against a
tidal wave following Monday's quake off Sumatra island, which registered at
least 8.0 on the Richter scale.
It was the biggest aftershock since the December 26 quake in the same region
that measured 9.0 on the Richter scale and caused a tidal wave which killed
273,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has proposed
evacuation of people within 1,000 km of the epicenter, said the CNN.
The US Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado revised the strength of the
earthquake from measuring a preliminary magnitude of 8.2 to 8.7. Japan's
Meteorological Agency put the earthquake at magnitude 8.5.
The quake was reportedly felt as far as Bangkok, Thailand, peninsular
Malaysia and Singapore. Dozens of people have been reportedly killed on the
Indonesian island of Nias, which is close to the epicenter.
Thailand, Japan, India and Sri Lanka have issued a tsunami
alert.