Mt. Merapi eruption spews ash over 60 km
By Israr Ardiansyah and Asip Agus Hasani
MAGELANG, Central Java (JP): Mt. Merapi, after days of ominous rumbling and minor tremors, finally erupted early yesterday morning, spewing toxic heat clouds and volcanic ash onto villages several kilometers away.
There have been no reports of casualties as yet. The heat clouds blew to an uninhabited area six kilometers west of the mountain.
Volcanic ash did hit areas as far as 60 kilometers west and southwest of the volcano. Muntilan, 20 kilometers southwest, was blanketed with white ash.
The volcano observatory in Babadan, four kilometers southwest of Merapi, first recorded signs of activity just after midnight.
At 4:38 a.m. the observatory officially upgraded Merapi's status to highest alert. Twenty minutes later, the volcano erupted.
Black smoke rose up to 3,000 meters above the 2,968-meter-high mountain in the initial explosion.
"We're lucky that the heat clouds didn't head in this direction toward our post but descended instead on an area which was uninhabited," said Mas Atje Purbawinata from the observatory.
Villages in the Magelang regency were covered by the most volcanic ash as houses, trees and roads turned white with dust up to two centimeters thick.
Observers remain worried of a greater eruption because of the more than 40 subsequent small eruptions and dozens of volcanic tremors recorded as of 10 a.m. yesterday.
"Under normal conditions, there would only be two or three tremors each month," Atje said.
In November 1994, a sudden eruption killed 66 people. In January 1997, more than 8,000 villagers living at the foot of the mountain had to be evacuated when it began spewing ash and lava.
The worst eruption of this century occurred in 1930, killing 1,300.
The mountain is ringed by several major towns. The city center of Yogyakarta, with a population of two million, is less than 30 kilometers south of the mountain; Surakarta with 500,000 people is about 40 kilometers to the east; 25 kilometers to the north, the town of Salatiga has a population of 100,000 and to the west is Magelang, with a population of one million, is about 30 kilometers away.
Evacuate
Muntilan resembled a ghost town after the eruption as activity ground to a halt.
"I didn't think we'd get this 'present' from Merapi. I woke up this morning and saw everything was dark, but I didn't realize that it was Merapi's smoke," said shop owner Marto as he cleaned his front patio of a carpet of thick dust.
People who ventured outside had to cover their faces with makeshift masks of handkerchiefs to protect themselves from the raining ash.
Dukun district chief Hamam expressed concern that local crops would suffer.
"I'm worried that hundreds of hectares of tobacco will be ruined," he told The Jakarta Post.
Dukun, with a population of about 40,000, is one of the closest districts to the mountain.
There have been no official reports of evacuations.
Residents remained calm in Krintjing, the closest village to the mountain in Dukun.
"This eruption is really quite normal, really nothing yet. But is we're told to evacuate, then we'll comply," remarked local resident Aji, who appeared indifferent to the danger despite the billowing smoke behind him from one of the world's most active volcanoes which was less than six-kilometers away.
Hamam was taken aback by the seeming nonchalance of many residents living at the foot of the mountain.
"I had hundreds of vehicles at the ready to evacuate residents, but when I got here everyone was so carefree as if nothing had happened. They were sitting around smoking cigarettes."