Indonesia Evacuated Thousand For Volcano Alert

Posted on 26 October 2010 by Mia Vania

Mount Merapi of Indonesia

News-worthy.info — Natural disaster threatens Indonesia again. This time, an active volcano in the island of Java – the most densely populated island of the country – shows signs to erupt at any moment.
Realizing the imminent danger, Indonesian authorities have evacuated thousands of people from the region around the volcano.
Yesterday at local time, seismologists have said that Mount Merapi could erupt at any time. The government thus raise the mount’s status to red, the highest level of alert.
According to Surono, a government volcanologist, the magma has been pushed upwards due to the escalating seismic energy and now it is only about one kilometer below the crater.
Responding to their seismologists and volcanologists, local authorities then ordered 19,000 residents within a danger zone of 10km from the crater to leave.
Frequent threats
“The evacuation has been under way since this morning. We put a priority on children, women and elderly,” said Widi Sutikno, a field coordinator of the Sleman district.
But it seems most residents are not willing to move because they had become too accustomed to the volcano’s activities. “This volcano is erupting many times in the last couple of years and people have been evacuated only to have to return home. So people are quite reluctant to leave,” said a government official.
“The most dangerous part of this volcano is its very hot clouds that up to 500 degrees of Celsius and travels at a high speed of up to 200 km per hour. And it was the clouds who have killed the most last year,” he added.
The last eruption of Mount Merapi was in 2006, killing two people. In 1994 its eruption had killed 60. But the biggest casualties recorded were in 1930 where more than 1,300 people were killed in eruptions.
Sabri, a local resident, said that he does not have any intention to move but stay in his village “to tend my goats,” he said.
“I am not afraid,” he went on. “It is better for young men like me to stay here to look after our livestock. If  the volcano does erupt, we can escape quickly,” he added. “Let the children and old people go first to a safer place.”
Indonesia is a country with many active volcanoes. Currently there are 129 active volcanoes there, spread over vast area of the country.