Flores Earthquake

At 5:58 a.m. local time on August 15, 2026, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake (USGS; local reports gave 7.7) struck at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres beneath the island of Flores in Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara province. Shaking reached intensity VIII on the Modified Mercalli scale in Manggarai, and damage spread across West and East Manggarai, Ngada, Nagekeo, Ende and Sikka, as well as Bima. The quake generated a small tsunami, with a maximum run-up of 2.68 metres, that damaged about 23 homes, and thousands of aftershocks followed, including deadly ones on August 17 and August 19.

The toll reported by Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) rose from 70 dead and more than 40,000 displaced on August 18 to 100 dead and more than 180,000 displaced on August 24, and reached 142 dead as of September 15. Another 1,776 people were injured, 336 of them seriously. As of August 31, the state news agency Antara reported more than 188,161 people displaced. About 95,567 homes were damaged, 27,414 of them heavily.

East Nusa Tenggara declared a 14-day emergency starting August 15. The military (TNI) and police (Polri) deployed about 3,500 personnel, and hospital ships and BNPB airlifts delivered about 1,954 tonnes of aid. President Prabowo Subianto visited the affected area on August 26. The Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), part of the Red Cross Movement, sent 33,947 relief items to affected communities. World Central Kitchen teams are serving meals to affected families, using motorcycles to reach families cut off around Bea Mese when the road became impassable by car, and the Global Empowerment Mission mobilized an immediate response through GEM Europe with the Royal Caribbean Group.