15 houses damaged in Madang earthquake

MORE than 15 houses at the Gavstoa (Government Storage) settlement in Madang were destroyed or damaged by yesterday’s 7.6 magnitude earthquake.
Reports were still coming in from other settlements in Madang where some families were left homeless.
A Gavstoa settler, Esther Albert, said she had never felt or experienced an earthquake.
The mother of two was among families left homeless.
The earthquake gave Papua New Guinea and Indonesia a jolt at about 9.45am and tremors were felt as far as Port Moresby.
It was centred 76km from Lae near Kainantu at a depth of 90km.
There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries.
PNG Power Ltd said there was a complete outage for consumers in Lae, Madang and the Highlands areas as a result.
It said in a statement that there was damage experienced at the Ramu Hydropower Station and at the switch yard but did not elaborate.
“Our teams will carry out proper checks before we can safely restore power supply to you all – all customers who are affected,” the state-owned entity said.