Villages are completely buried; at least 47 people are dead in a rising death toll; power outages are hampering information flow and complicating search and rescue efforts. This is the aftermath of a powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck off the coast of Indonesia early Saturday.

Authorities warned that the death toll would almost certainly rise.

The initial quake, 235 aftershocks and tsunamis that followed

The U.S. Geological Survey said the initial quake hit Indonesia's Flores region at 5:58 a.m. local time. Its epicenter was 42 miles north-northwest of the city of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara province, with a depth of 6 miles.

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The initial quake was followed by 235 aftershocks — the largest at magnitude 6.2 — according to Indonesia’s meteorological agency.

Authorities initially issued a tsunami warning and urged coastal residents to move to higher ground.

Tsunami waves reached up to 5.3 feet high, as recorded by the agency's sea-level monitoring stations in coastal villages in Manggarai and East Manggarai. Because of the tsunami, one village was completely blanketed in mud and debris, with fishing boats stranded ashore, infrastructure damaged and homes surrounded by sediment left by receding waters.

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Tsunami waves were also detected in Maurole, Ende Regency, at 3.1 feet, and in Bulukumba, South Sulawesi and Sape in Bima Regency, at 1.6 feet.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because of its location on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

Search and rescue efforts hampered and complicated

Several factors are making it very difficult for rescue teams to respond.

Power outages have limited information flow, resulting in communication disruptions in collecting reports of damage and casualties, East Nusa Tenggara Police Chief Rudi Darmoko said.

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Transportation is also made more difficult with landslides in Ende regency cutting off the Trans-Flores highway, a roughly 435-mile paved mountain road spanning Flores Island, from Labuan Bajo to Larantuka.

Damaged infrastructure and a lack of heavy equipment have also hampered rescue efforts.

About 2,000 villagers have had to abandon their homes and move to temporary shelters as the quake flattened at least 157 houses and damaged nearly 200 more. It also destroyed more than 100 public facilities, including schools, medical centers and churches.

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At least 47 bodies have been recovered — mostly in the three devastated regencies of Sikka, Manggarai and East Manggarai — with about 50 people transported to hospitals, according to the head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, Fathur Rahman.

Rahman expects the death toll to rise.

Flores Island sees heavy damage

On Flores Island, landslides have completely buried or cut off many remote villages.

A resident of Sikka regency, Yohanna Embu, tells the story of the strong shaking and panicked people who ran to higher ground.

“Many buildings here were damaged ... I saw that the waiting room at the port terminal in Maumere had collapsed,” she said.

At a morning Mass at St. Peter Major Seminary in Sikka, students fled in panic when the roof of an assembly hall collapsed, said the Rev. Guidelbertus Tanga, rector of the seminary.

“Our students and nuns ran out in panic beneath a collapsing roof,” Tanga said. “At least one priest suffered a broken leg after jumping from the second floor of a building during the quake.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.