A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off Flores island in eastern Indonesia on Saturday, killing at least 47 people and injuring 101, national disaster management agency BNPB said, based on figures updated to midnight at the start of Sunday.
The quake hit at 05:58 local time on Saturday, 15 Aug about 68km north-northwest of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara province at a depth of 10km, according to the US Geological Survey. Indonesia’s meteorology and geophysics agency BMKG placed the epicentre at sea, 38km north-east of Mbay in Nagekeo regency, at a depth of 15km.
BNPB counted 914 houses destroyed, 126 moderately damaged and 317 lightly damaged. Damage also hit 93 education facilities, 36 health facilities and 38 government offices, according to the agency. It’s estimated that more than 5,000 people have been displaced from their homes.
Meeting basic rights and logistics needs at the shelters is now one of the priorities of the emergency response, said Berton SP Panjaitan, acting head of BNPB’s disaster data, information and communication centre.
BMKG issued a tsunami warning after the main shock and lifted it later the same day. The agency had recorded 611 aftershocks by 02:00 on Sunday, the largest at magnitude 6.2.
The USGS assigned a yellow PAGER alert to the event for both shaking-related deaths and economic losses. The USGS said estimated losses are expected to come to less than 1% of Indonesia’s GDP and that the impact “should be relatively localised”. However, its loss model gives a 39% probability that economic losses fall between US$10m and US$100m, and an equal 39% probability that they fall between US$100m and US$1bn. A further 11% of the distribution sits above US$1bn, and 11% below US$10m.
Economic losses are expected to eclipse insured losses with the protection gap across the Asia Pacific region remaining wide. Munich Re calculated that only 12% of Asia Pacific’s natural catastrophe losses in 2025 carried insurance cover, against a global figure of about 48%.
Indonesian insurers cede earthquake risk to PT Reasuransi MAIPARK Indonesia, the industry-owned specialist reinsurer that drew 94% of its 2024 gross premiums from compulsory cessions. Fitch upgraded its national insurer financial strength rating to ‘A+(idn)’ in July 2025 on stronger retrocession and capital buffers.
