Mount Merapi evacuees told to stay in refuges

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Mount Merapi's activity decreased yesterday although it continued sending tremors and streams of molten lava down its slopes.

Despite the decrease in activity, the authorities kept the alert at the highest level on the grounds that the situation could unexpectedly change for the worse.

They were busy trying to convince the thousands of people sheltered in temporary evacuation centers that it was too risky to return yesterday.

"If until Jan. 22 nothing happens, they may go home," assured Wimpy S. Tjetjep, the director of volcanology. "Although it looks calmer, the volcanic activity could increase any time. People shouldn't be caught off-guard."

At no time yesterday did Merapi spew the deadly heat clouds of volcanic ash that usually claim the most fatalities in eruptions.

Wimpy said the gushing lava and frequent tremors indicated the 2,968-meter high volcano was still highly active and that it was impossible to predict what might happen.

An estimated 18,000 people were evacuated to safer ground when Merapi, bordering Central Java and Yogyakarta, erupted over the weekend. The disaster affected the regencies of Magelang. Boyolali, Sleman and Klaten.

The sound and heat from the eruption was heard and felt in the ancient city of Yogyakarta, 35 kilometers to the south.

Experts in observation posts said they could not see where the burning lava was heading for due to the heavy clouds hanging over the mountain.

They are closely watching the enormous pool of lava that is accumulating at the top of the volcano which they fear could threaten the numerous villages along the rivers originating from Merapi.

Wimpy estimated the accumulation of lava at about eight million cubic meters.

"If heavy rains fall, the lava could slide and cause a disaster," he said.

He said the cold lava could slide at a speed of 60 kilometers an hour and the mud could reach the nearest Turgo village in only six minutes.

"There is no way the villagers could avoid calamity if they insist on staying," he said.

In the 1994 eruption, most of the 69 fatalities occurred in Turgo where heat clouds burned people, cattle and crops. Many villagers from Turgo, evacuated in last week's eruption, have returned, ignoring official warnings.

In Klaten, thousands of people who returned to their villages found the water in their wells no longer potable because it was contaminated with sulfuric ash.

They called for the local government to supply drinking water until the situation returned to normal.

Meanwhile, Central Java's governor appealed to people near Merapi affected by the eruption to consider moving to the outer islands under the state-sponsored transmigration program.

"Anyway, we won't force them to move. We hope they will resettle voluntarily," he told The Jakarta Post. (har/23/pan)