Standby Task Force deploys in response to earthquake in Sulawesi, Indonesia

As most of you know Indonesia suffered an 7.5 magnitude earthquake on the island of Sulawesi on September 28th, 2018. The quake was located 77 km (48 mi) away from the provincial capital of Palu, and was followed shortly thereafter by a tsunami. As Palu is located at the end of a narrow bay, the tsunami’s force was intensified when the waters entered the bay and it swept shore-lying houses and buildings on its way. The combined effects of the earthquake and tsunami led to the deaths of over 1600 people and thousands without shelter and food.
The Standby Task Force are activating to provide support to Internews who are working with the Association of Indonesian Journalists and also have expressions of interest from other groups who are actively responding in the area, particularly those in the Telecommunications Cluster. Internews is working to assist to rehabilitate and restore communication and information flows to support the overall humanitarian response. This will allow AIJ and Internews to start sharing useful information about the response with affected communities.
Indonesia is a highly digitalized population and we envision more and more people turning to the internet for information while connectivity is slowly restored. Knowing who the influencers are and what information needs people have will help us direct important information to the local trusted sources so that they can share it with their network.
As research and information gathering is something you lot do very well, we have agreed to deploy to fill this gap. We are planning to activate today at 23:00 UTC for 3 days, however there may be a need to extend this time depending on information needs and situation changes as they arise.
Kind regards,
Core Team and deployment leads
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