Mt. Merapi death toll rises to 27
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Mount Merapi remained active as the official body counts from Tuesday's eruption rose to 27 yesterday and 5,000 people fled to safer ground from nearby villages.
Search and rescue workers said 34 people were still missing, while health authorities listed 500 people admitted to hospitals in the city, or treated at the temporary health posts set up in evacuation centers in Sleman.
In the stricken villages at the foot of the 2,865 meter high mountain, the authorities killed 90 head of cattle which were suffering from serious burns from the volcanic ashes that have rained over a vast area.
Fifteen bodies were buried in a mass grave in Jamblangan village, Sleman. Another nine were claimed by their families to be buried separately. The bodies were transferred to the authority of the village chief of Purbowingangun, one of the worst hit villages, in a tearful ceremony attended by Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX.
President Soeharto sent his condolences to the victims' families yesterday and promised to send in relief aid to the stricken areas.
Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono told journalists that Soeharto ordered his adjutant to call the Sleman regent for firsthand information as soon as he heard about the disaster on Tuesday.
Although less intensely than on Tuesday, the volcano continued to spew clouds of hot ashes into the sky and to spill out burning lava in all directions yesterday. Nearby areas remain designated as danger zones.
One of 127 volcanoes in Indonesia, Mount Merapi also continued to emit black smoke, darkening surrounding areas as far away as Boyolali, Magelang, Temanggung, Kebumen and Cilacap.
Mas Ace Purbawinata of the Yogyakarta-based Merapi observation agency said the cooled lava accumulating on the mount's slopes was an imminent threat to thousands of residents if heavy rains washed it down.
Mount Merapi, located about 30 kilometers north of here, spewed clouds of ash and steam with temperatures estimated at between 300 and 600 degrees Celsius. The clouds of steam and ash engulfed the villages to the south of the volcano, burning more than 150 houses and trees, injuring cattle and people.
There were at least four eruptions and 40 quakes recorded yesterday.
Sources at four Yogyakarta hospitals to which many of the victims were admitted told The Jakarta Post that 60 people suffered serious burn injuries.
Twenty workers of a water pipe installation project at the Kaliurang tourist amusement center, who had been declared missing on Tuesday, were found alive yesterday. Four of them were admitted to the hospital for injuries.
Central Java Governor Soewardi said the government was ready to move 4,000 residents in Dukun subdistrict, Muntilan, if things got worse.
Doctor Djoko Rijanto of Panti Raoih Hospital said that five people died from serious burns yesterday.
An official at the volcanology agency in Yogyakarta, R. Sukyar, told the Post that he expected the eruptions would stop at the end of the month. By early December, areas near Mt. Merapi should be safe, he said.
Merapi has shown a high level of activity since August this year, jolting the areas with tremors and spewing lava in September. Officials at the observation post recorded four quakes in October. Early this month the authorities declared the surrounding areas as danger zones and told people living there to be alert.
Public kitchens have been erected at the evacuation posts. Medicine, food supplies, clothes, water and other aid have been streaming in from various agencies, including the Indonesian Red Cross. The Indonesian Poultry Association has contributed Rp 100 million for the victims.
Yogyakarta Governor Sri Paku Alam VIII, visiting the victims in the evacuation areas, advised the villagers to join the state- sponsored transmigration program. (02/wah/mun/har/sim)
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