Residents return as Merapi calms<\/p>\n
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Residents living at the foot of Mount Merapi
\nhave suspended plans to evacuate their homes after the volcano on
\nSunday showed only minor signs of the potential fury which had
\nbeen so evident a day earlier.<\/p>\n
\"The volcano is calm today (Sunday) after days of spewing hot
\nsmoke and lava which reached up to 6.5 kilometers from its peak,\"
\nunit head at the Yogyakarta-based Volcanic Technology and
\nResearch Development Station (BPPTK), Antonius Ratdomo Purbo said
\non Sunday.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless Antonius warned that the volcano remained
\ndangerous nevertheless, especially the likelihood of spewing heat
\nclouds.<\/p>\n
\"The previous (Saturday) eruption caused instability in the
\nexisting lava dome. This means that it may collapse anytime and
\ncreate heat clouds in the next few days.\"<\/p>\n
\"That's why we retained the alert status and continue
\nmonitoring the lava dome. Ash rain, however, has subsided,\"
\nAntonius said.<\/p>\n
The 2,968-meter-high volcano has shown increasing activity in
\nthe past few weeks but some 12,000 residents settled around
\nmountain seem reluctant to leave.<\/p>\n
BPPTK chief Syamsul Rizal renewed on Sunday his office's call
\nfor residents and sand miners near the volcano to leave their
\nhomes.<\/p>\n
\"We have repeatedly warned people in the radius of eight
\nkilometers from the foot of the mountain to leave since Saturday
\nbut they returned home again on Sunday,\" he said, lamenting the
\n\"stubbornness\" of the people.<\/p>\n
Sand-miners living along the banks of the Sat and Senowo
\nrivers also had been ordered to evacuate their homes, he added.<\/p>\n
In the 1994 eruption, 60 residents of Turgo village on the
\nsouthern side of the volcano's slope died of extreme exposure
\nwhen heat clouds descended on their village.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile residents of Dukun and Srumbung sub-districts
\ncontinued life as usual on Sunday. They live in an area
\nconsidered to be one of the most vulnerable to heat clouds.<\/p>\n
\"No one has left their home, but we'll stay alert,\" Sumanto,
\nan official at Dukun sub-district told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
Another resident of Srumbung sub-district, Ranu, said that
\nsand miners had only temporarily stopped working.<\/p>\n
Health officials have distributed thousands of masks to
\nresidents in three main districts on the east side of the
\nmountain as well as in the cities of Klaten and Surakarta to
\nprotect people from ash after Saturday's volcanic activity.<\/p>\n
Ash rain, which contains sulfur, magnesium and silica, can
\ncause respiratory illnesses, skin irritation, diarrhea and severe
\neye infections.<\/p>\n
As of Sunday, Merapi's alert status remain unchanged since it
\nwas raised to the second highest level. The volcanology office
\nrecognizes four danger levels for a volcano -- normal, aware,
\nprepared and alert (Awas) -- the last being the signal for an
\nimminent eruption. (44\/edt)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/residents-return-as-merapi-calms-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}