Central Indonesia was struck by a powerful 6.2 magnitude earthquake Saturday morning (5:45 AM Local Indonesian Time/22:45 Z). The epicenter was 25 km southwest of the city of
Yogyakarta on the island of Java. Thousands are feared dead.
Reuters--"The total for now is 2,711 people killed. The number keeps climbing by the hour because evacuation is still in process," Desmawati, an official at the Social Affairs Ministry's disaster task force in Jakarta, told Reuters by telephone.
Update 10:43 AM EDT: Contributing editor MeteorBlades was visiting Indonesia this week: My understanding is that he has phoned home since the quake struck and is fine. Daily Kos also recieves several thousand hits from that region of the world every day. We hope to hear from those readers when all communications are fully restored and extend them our best wishes until that time.