REO, INDONESIA - About 19,000 people had been forced into temporary shelters by Monday after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Flores, as emergency teams continued distributing aid and assessing damage across the island.

Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency, or BNPB, reported late Monday that 68 people had died and 213 were injured across the affected regencies. Manggarai and East Manggarai accounted for 50 of the deaths, with fatalities also recorded in Nagekeo, Sikka, Ende, West Manggarai and Ngada.

Damage assessments continued to rise as field verification expanded. BNPB’s Monday district breakdown listed 4,541 damaged homes, while a Tuesday BPBD NTT update, based on data through Monday, reported 7,968 homes with light to severe damage. The provincial agency also recorded damage to 744 public facilities and infrastructure, with assessments still ongoing.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said the earthquake struck at 5:58 a.m. local time on Aug. 15 at a depth of 15 kilometers, with its epicenter about 30 kilometers northeast of Nagekeo. BMKG attributed the quake to activity on the Flores Back-Arc Thrust.

A tsunami warning issued after the earthquake was later lifted. BMKG recorded tsunami waves at 16 monitoring locations across four provinces, with the highest reaching about 1.6 meters at Pota in East Manggarai. By 5 a.m. Tuesday, the agency had recorded 2,119 aftershocks, including 24 above magnitude 5 and 70 that were felt by residents.

BNPB said seven relief flights between Saturday and Monday transported about 101.5 metric tons of food, tents, medicines and other supplies. Sea shipments were also directed toward Maumere, Ende and Reo, while two field hospitals were deployed toward Manggarai and Nagekeo to reinforce health services after medical facilities were damaged.

BNPB chief Suharyanto and Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Pratikno visited an evacuation centre at Barangkolong in Reok, Manggarai, on Monday, as authorities worked to improve temporary shelters, communal kitchens and health services across several evacuation points.

For residents whose homes were destroyed, the immediate concern remained access to basic necessities. Clothing trader Rasyid Jafar told The Associated Press: “My house is just rubble now. We need food, medicine and clean water urgently.”