Rescuers Seek Survivors of Indonesian Quake : Disaster: Death toll climbs to at least 1,565. Whole villages are wiped out by huge ocean waves.

Rescuers dug in wrecked houses and buildings Sunday searching for survivors of a powerful earthquake that killed at least 1,565 people, the government said.

Hundreds of people were injured when the quake rocked the East Nusa Tenggara province of Flores island Saturday afternoon, officials said.

Whole villages in coastal areas were wiped out by huge ocean waves triggered by the quake, said Hendrik Nai, a spokesman for the rescue operation. The waves, called tsunamis, were as high as 80 feet and swept as far as 1,000 feet inland, he said.

About 1,120 of the known deaths were in Maumere, a town of 40,000 on the eastern part of the island, the provincial governor’s office reported.

Poor communications hampered the gathering of information from remote parts of the island, which is about 1,000 miles east of Jakarta.

The earthquake measured a magnitude of 6.8, according to Indonesian officials. However, the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., measured it at 7.5. A quake of that magnitude is capable of causing widespread, heavy damage.

Gov. Hendrik Fernandez visited Maumere on Sunday and was shocked by the devastation, spokesman Herman Gadidjou said.

“All our development efforts for the last 25 years have disappeared in just one day,” Gadidjou quoted the governor as saying.

Gadidjou said ships were carrying volunteers, food and medicine from nearby towns to the damaged areas.

Rescue work was hindered by aftershocks that occurred about every five minutes until around midnight Saturday, Nai said.

Most people spent the night in fields and other open areas without tents in a tropical rainstorm, fearing further collapses of buildings, officials said.

The quake destroyed government buildings, schools, mosques, churches and shops in Maumere and Larantuka, another town on the eastern part of the island. Most of the buildings on the island are single-story structures made of wood and brick.

The quake was centered about 19 miles southwest of Maumere, officials said.

Flores is a tourist attraction famed for its coral and colorful religious festivals. It was not immediately known if any foreigners were among the victims.

A series of tremors hit eastern Indonesia last year, killing at least 22 people and causing extensive damage to property.

Indonesia is along the Pacific Ocean’s volcanic “rim of fire” and is hit by many strong temblors each year. In July, 1991, an earthquake of magnitude 5.7 scale killed about 30 people on the island of Alor in southeastern Indonesia.

An earthquake in 1979 measuring 8.1 killed about 100 people, and a 1977 temblor registering 8.0 killed about 200.