A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the north coast of central Flores on the morning of Saturday 15 August 2026. The aftershocks have not stopped since, the recovery in the worst hit regencies is only starting, and several places travellers know well are closed.
We keep a page updated with the current situation, with the date attached to every figure so you can see how old it is. This post is the background: what happened, what it looks like on the ground, what it means if you are heading to Flores, and how to help.
What happened
The earthquake hit at 05:58 in the morning. The epicentre was at sea, roughly 30 kilometres northeast of Mbay in Nagekeo, on the north coast of Flores, at a depth of 15 kilometres. BMKG issued a tsunami warning for East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara and South Sulawesi and lifted it within a few hours.
What it looks like on the ground
The centre of the island took the worst of it. Homes, schools, health centres, places of worship and public buildings were damaged across Ngada and Nagekeo and the surrounding regencies. Thousands of people are living in temporary shelter. Days after the earthquake, some communities were still without mains power or phone coverage, which is part of why the reported figures kept climbing: places that could not be reached could not be counted.
These are not places off to one side of a traveller’s map. The road between Bajawa and Ende is the road our guests take, the villages along it are ones we visit with them, and a good number of our guides and drivers are from these regencies. Their families live there. The rebuilding will take a great deal longer than the news cycle, and it will still be going on long after Flores is being described as open again.
The aftershocks have moved west
This is the part worth understanding before you travel.
The sequence has not stopped, and it has moved west along the island, away from the original epicentre in Nagekeo and towards Manggarai. That puts it closer to Labuan Bajo than the main shock was. Events above magnitude 5 are still happening and are being felt in West Manggarai, the regency Labuan Bajo sits in.
If you are in western Flores, expect to feel further shaking. That is not a prediction of anything worse, it is a description of what the sequence is currently doing. Most aftershocks are harmless. Being told in advance that they are coming is better than feeling one over breakfast and wondering what nobody told you.
What is open and what is closed
Komodo National Park never closed and boats are sailing from Labuan Bajo. Several well known sites inland are shut, including in the highlands where the shaking was strongest. At the time of writing that includes Kelimutu National Park, where landslides came down inside the crater walls, along with Wae Rebo and Ruteng Pu’u.
Closures are decided by the site operators and local authorities, and the current position is on the updates page.
If you are travelling to Flores
Contact the agent or operator you booked through. They know the status of your specific itinerary and any general page, including ours, does not.
Check the official sources rather than social media or news aggregators. BMKG for seismic information, BNPB for the disaster response, and the airport operators’ own pages for whether an airport is working, which is not the same question as whether your flight is running.
The Indonesian government’s advice to travellers planning a Flores trip is to put safety first, follow official sources, and contact the BPOLBF tourism hotline before departure.
What we are doing
We contacted our clients and our partners on the ground as soon as the situation was clear enough to say anything useful. Where an itinerary included a site that is now closed, we have proposed alternatives. We are handling each trip case by case rather than applying a blanket rule, because a departure in October is a different conversation from one next week. And we are following the situation in real time, which is what the updates page is built on.
If you are travelling with us, you will hear from us.
What help is needed
If you want to help, the needs are practical: food, hygiene and health supplies, cooking gear, and the materials to keep temporary shelters and emergency posts running.
Shelter is the bigger gap. Blankets, sleeping mats, pillows, tarpaulins, family tents, 60 to 75 litre containers. Posts also need generators, lighting, Starlink units and handheld radios, plus masks, gloves and rubber boots for anyone working in the damaged areas. If you are sending goods, stick to the priority list and check nothing expires within six months.
Where to donate
We have checked two organisations working in Flores now and taking donations: PMI NTT (@pmi.provinsintt) and Caritas Indonesia (@caritas_indonesia). A lot of fundraising accounts are circulating. These are the two we point readers to.
Donate through their own verified channels and follow their current instructions. Money tends to help more than goods, since needs shift week to week and teams can buy what is actually short on the ground.
Following the situation
The page below is updated as the situation changes and carries the official sources, the current closures and the date on every figure.
