Volcano Eruption - Active Dangerous Volcano Alert - Volcano Evacuation in Indonesia

Some villagers shun volcano alert - Many reportedly return home as Mount Merapi belches ash, lava

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Mandatory evacuations are under way on the island of Java, as scientists warned that an explosion from one of Indonesia's most dangerous volcanoes could be imminent.
Indonesian authorities on Saturday ordered the evacuation of thousands of residents near Mount Merapi, which has been rumbling for about a month. Increased lava flow during the past day and a new lava dome forming at the peak triggered immediate concerns.
"Clearly, it looks like it may be getting much worse," Michael Ramsey, associate professor in the Geology and Planetary Science Department of the University of Pittsburgh said.
"You can almost think of it as a cork in a bottle that's being shook up and the pressurization going on underneath there as the new lava moves up can only mean bad things," he said.
On Sunday, however, many villagers tried to return to their homes along the slopes of smoking Mount Merapi, news services reported.
"My feeling is it will not blow at this time," said Budi, in a report from The Associated Press. A 30-year-old farmer, Budi had come back to cut grass to give to his cows.
Still, scientists persisted in warning that people who remained in the eruption zone did so at their own peril.
"What the officials are saying is that we're going to have a larger eruption than what we're seeing right at the moment," Volcanologist Catherine Hickson of Thompson Rivers University in Canada said.
"We call them Merapian-style eruptions because essentially we have a dome that forms and we create these hot pyroclastic flows which kill people. So we actually name a style after this because it is so frequent."
A pyroclastic flow is a ground-hugging avalanche of hot ash, pumice, rock fragments, and volcanic gas that rushes down the side of a volcano at several hundred miles an hour.
"Anyone or animal that is caught in its path is immediately essentially incinerated," she said.
Ramsey said the evacuations are crucial now, because once the dome collapses there can be "weeks to months" of pyroclastic flows, and it becomes very dangerous to get up on the volcano to evacuate anyone.
Ucip Bahagia, head of of one of the local crisis centers, said about 22,500 people will need to be evacuated. They will be taken to temporary shelters.
But the shelters were quickly becoming overcrowded, he said. The largest, which can comfortably house about 500 people, had more than 1,500. Authorities planned to move people into schools and government buildings, and were going to individual homes to evacuate them.
Ibnu Subianto, the top force commander for the evacuation, said there are about 5,100 evacuees in refugee camps. At least 4,056 of those people are from the highest risk area.
But local officials say the population of the highest risk area is about 4,500, which means some 450 people have not yet evacuated.
Most residents of the region in central Java province east of Jakarta are farmers, some of whom are reluctant to leave their land.
That's exactly what happened in the fatal eruption in 1994, according to Ramsey. He said once the lava begins flowing "it becomes an almost unlivable situation, even if you're a little bit farther away. The gases and ash become very, very bad."
With a peak measuring around 2,900 meters -- or 9,700 feet -- Merapi has been almost continuously active for nearly a decade.
NASA's Earth Observatory says Merapi's slopes are densely populated. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says as many as 80,000 people could be displaced if Merapi erupts, depending which way the lava flows.
The eruption in 1994 claimed at least 66 lives, and a 1930 eruption killed 1,370, according to NASA's Web site.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/05/14/indonesia.volcano/

Thousands flee smouldering volcano on Java

Michael Sheridan

WITH smoke and lava spewing from the crater of Mount Merapi on the island of Java, Indonesian authorities yesterday ordered the evacuation of 15,000 people in the vicinity of the volcano and said that it could erupt at any time.
Troops and police moved through villages on the slopes of the 9,600ft mountain, persuading people to flee. They found themselves battling superstition as much as geology.
Merapi, which means “mountain of fire”, dominates the centre of the island of Java near the old city of Yogyakarta, the seat of sultans and cradle of Javanese culture. It has erupted 68 times since 1548, killing 1,300 people in 1930 and 43 in 1994.
Among those evacuated was Marijan, a 79-year-old servant at the sultan’s palace who is believed by locals to possess mystical powers enabling him to communicate with the “keeper” of Merapi.
Yusuf Kalla, Indonesia’s vice-president, who ordered an immediate evacuation after touring the area, said that the villagers had to be protected from their faith in magical rituals to calm the volcano.
“Local authorities should not gamble with the lives of these people,” Kalla declared and ordered Marijan to be escorted to a five-star hotel at the government’s expense.
Kalla met some villagers who were reluctant to leave because they believed there would be no danger until lightning played around the crater and animals fled the slopes.
The volcano is credited with supernatural significance by many Indonesians and some believe a heavenly kingdom exists at its summit.
Although most of Indonesia’s population of 220m are Muslims, the Islamic religion co-exists with traditional folk beliefs throughout the archipelago and priests regularly climb the volcano’s slopes to propitiate its spirits with offerings.

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2179405,00.html

Thousands Flee Dangerous Indonesia Volcano - Thousands Flee Lava and Rock of Indonesia's Merapi Volcano Amid Warning of Possible Eruption

CHRIS BRUMMITT
May 14, 2006

Thousands of people fled the fertile slopes of Indonesia's most dangerous volcano Saturday as glowing lava oozed down the side and ash and rock spewed from the mountaintop, leading authorities to warn that an eruption could come soon.
Villages on Mount Merapi were left virtually empty, although some residents returned to its slopes Sunday to tend their animals and crops. More than 4,500 people living in villages closest to the crater, or next to rivers where hot lava is more likely to flow down, had been evacuated.
"My feeling is it will not blow at this time," said Budi, a 30-year-old farmer, who came back to cut grass to give to his cows. Like many other Indonesians, he goes by only one name.
Police manned roadblocks Sunday preventing vehicles from getting within six miles of the volcano's crater, but allowed villagers to return to tend to land and animals, advising them to leave again by nightfall.
Thousands spent Sunday packed into shelters set up at schools, government buildings and mosques in nearby towns in the island of Java.
"If it is safe, then we will go home," said Selamat, a 34-year-old staying in a government office transformed for 500 people. Women prepared breakfast in common kitchen and washed their children's clothes.
Mount Merapi belched out massive clouds of black smoke Sunday and lava flows scorched fresh scars in its slopes. Throughout the day Saturday, volcanic tremors had shaken the ground, some strong enough to send people running in fear. After nightfall, fiery magma from the volcano's cauldron lit up the bottoms of clouds above the nearly 9,700-foot peak, and cascades of bright red stones tumbled down the mountainside.
Many people already had evacuated from homes closest to Merapi's crater after the volcano recently emerged from several years of relative quiet, but authorities said as many as 7,000 living farther down the slopes had refused to go and leave behind precious livestock and crops.
Groups of men who sent their families away were seen chatting around fires to keep warm during the night, guarding their homes against looters.
Edi, a 30-year-old villager, said he would stay unless he received a clear signal from the mountain's spirits that an eruption was at hand.
"People around here believe that if Merapi is going to explode there will be a sign, a magical sign," he said, sitting on a mat sipping coffee. "Either it comes in a dream, or in the form of a hallucination."
Although most Indonesians are Muslim, many also follow animist beliefs and worship ancient spirits. Often at full moons, they trek to crater rims and throw in rice, jewelry and live animals to appease the volcanoes.
Merapi, about 250 miles east of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, is one of at least 129 active volcanoes in the country, which lies along the Pacific "Ring of Fire" a series of fault lines that feed volcanoes stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and into Southeast Asia.
Merapi last erupted in 1994, sending out a cloud of searing gas that burned 60 people to death. About 1,300 people were killed when it erupted in 1930.
One man who defied the order to evacuate, Baijo, 30, said he was not worried about the risks of staying behind.
"I am not afraid. This is normal. We are looking after the village. If not, thieves will come," he said.
Some farmers said they had not seen any volcanic activity themselves so decided to remain on their land despite being urged to leave by the revered Sultan Sri Hamengkubuwono, who is also the regional governor in Yogyakarta, a city of 1 million people just 11 miles from Merapi.
"We will not leave soon because of our livestock," said one cattle raiser, who declined to give his name.
All roads leading up the mountain were closed as chunks of glowing pumice blew from Merapi's depths into the sky and burning gas fumes wafted through the air.
Authorities put the area on highest alert after observing two days of steady lava flow from the volcano.
"Because there have been constant lava flows that cause hot gases, we have raised the status to the highest level," said Bambang Dwiyanto, head of the region's volcanology center.

Source:http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1959518&page=2