Ambon, Indonesia— The floor moved at 07:06 local time on October 28, 2026, and it did not stop quickly. A magnitude 6.4 earthquake centered 378 kilometers southeast of Amahai in the Banda Sea ripped through the deep crust at 160 kilometers depth, shaking islands from Seram to Tual. USGS logged it as M6.4. Indonesia's BMKG first flagged it as 6.4, then revised to 6.2.
The damage was not from tsunami. It was from age. In Amahai, Tehoru and smaller coastal kampungs, unreinforced brick, timber markets, and corroded concrete gave way. Walls cracked and fell outward into narrow lanes. A health clinic in central Seram lost part of its roof. Power poles leaned, then snapped.
"We felt strong shaking for almost 30 seconds, then the lights went out," said one resident in Amahai contacted by phone. Local disaster officials reported landslides blocking the trans-Seram road in two spots, cutting off trucks carrying fuel and food. No major port was destroyed, but small jetties shifted.
BMKG said the depth dampened the surface wave but widened the felt area. About four million people felt light to moderate shaking, according to shaking models. USGS depth placed it well below the shallow crust where the worst destruction usually occurs. That is what saved lives. Older infrastructure was not so lucky.
In Masohi, the regional disaster agency counted at least 42 houses with heavy damage by the evening of October 29. The number rose overnight as village heads checked in by radio. Markets stayed shut. Schools closed in three subdistricts because plaster had fallen in classrooms.
The friction came fast. Residents said aid was slow to reach outside Amahai. The provincial public works office said it had only one heavy loader available for Seram's east coast. PLN crews worked to restore feeders that tripped when poles fell. Water supply was intermittent because pumps lost power.
Reuters correspondents noted a pattern seen across eastern Indonesia: building codes exist on paper, but enforcement on small islands is thin. Local builders use sand-heavy mortar. Wood joints are not braced. When a deep quake hits, those buildings fail first. Officials recorded no tsunami warning because the mechanism was deep and not vertical.
As of October 30, 2026, assessment teams were still walking outer villages. Aftershocks in the 4.4 to 5.0 range continued near Tanimbar and Tual. BMKG warned residents not to enter cracked houses. The power was back in Amahai town, but not in the hills behind it.
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