Merapi refugees begin to trek home
Merapi refugees begin to trek home
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Around 7,000 refugees have returned to their
villages on the slopes of Mount Merapi following a decrease in
volcanic activity in the area.
Despite the decrease, the mountain, which erupted early on
Sunday, was still spewing out a thick cloud of hot ash yesterday.
Sudjarwo, an official in Dukun subdistrict, Magelang regency,
said that as many as 5,000 people who fled the subdistrict on
Sunday night had returned home early yesterday.
"The evacuees arrived home at around 8:00 a.m. this morning,"
he told the media yesterday.
He said the villagers had insisted on returning home after
Mount Merapi appeared to have calmed down.
"It rained ash over parts of the western slope yesterday
(Sunday) and that sparked the evacuation," he said.
However Sudjarwo said he could not determine whether activity
in the volcano had abated and added that a renewed evacuation
would be called if there were indications that a further eruption
was imminent.
Around 2,000 villagers who fled from Serumbung subdistrict in
the regency have also abandoned their temporary shelters and
returned home.
Central Java Governor Soewardi, who visited one evacuation
center but found the makeshift tents vacant, handed over a sum of
money and a truck load of instant noodles for the refugees to
Magelang Regent Kardi.
More than 40,000 people living in over ten villages on the
western slopes of the volcano fled to safer areas in Magelang as
volcanic activity in the mountain reached a critical level on
Sunday.
The 2,968 meter high volcano spewed out poisonous gases and
molten lava oozed out of the vent and ran down the Lamat,
Blongkeng, Boyong, Sat, Seno and Jurong Jero lava canals. Hot
clouds shot out of the crater to an estimated height of 4,500
meters and ash covered the mountainside.
Thousands of hectares of paddy and tobacco plants in the Dukun
and Srumbung subdistricts were badly damaged by the ash, which
has been raining down incessantly since Sunday.
Yesterday the volcano continued to belch out hot clouds and
tremors were felt, but with less frequency than on Sunday.
Mas Atje Purbawinata, chief of the volcanology directorate's
research office here, confirmed that activity was decreasing and
said that if compared to Sunday, the volcano was calming down.
"Four hundred and seventy tremors were recorded on Sunday.
Today there were only 17 tremors and no more flows of lava," he
said, adding that his office was continuing to closely monitor
volcanic activity in the area.
Mount Merapi is one of the most active volcanoes in the
country. Three major eruptions have been recorded in the past,
the worst of which occurred in 1930 when 1,300 people were
killed. The other two eruptions were in 1996 and 1997, when a
total of 88 people died. (23/44)