Residents return as Merapi calms
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Residents living at the foot of Mount Merapi have suspended plans to evacuate their homes after the volcano on Sunday showed only minor signs of the potential fury which had been so evident a day earlier.
"The volcano is calm today (Sunday) after days of spewing hot smoke and lava which reached up to 6.5 kilometers from its peak," unit head at the Yogyakarta-based Volcanic Technology and Research Development Station (BPPTK), Antonius Ratdomo Purbo said on Sunday.
Nevertheless Antonius warned that the volcano remained dangerous nevertheless, especially the likelihood of spewing heat clouds.
"The previous (Saturday) eruption caused instability in the existing lava dome. This means that it may collapse anytime and create heat clouds in the next few days."
"That's why we retained the alert status and continue monitoring the lava dome. Ash rain, however, has subsided," Antonius said.
The 2,968-meter-high volcano has shown increasing activity in the past few weeks but some 12,000 residents settled around mountain seem reluctant to leave.
BPPTK chief Syamsul Rizal renewed on Sunday his office's call for residents and sand miners near the volcano to leave their homes.
"We have repeatedly warned people in the radius of eight kilometers from the foot of the mountain to leave since Saturday but they returned home again on Sunday," he said, lamenting the "stubbornness" of the people.
Sand-miners living along the banks of the Sat and Senowo rivers also had been ordered to evacuate their homes, he added.
In the 1994 eruption, 60 residents of Turgo village on the southern side of the volcano's slope died of extreme exposure when heat clouds descended on their village.
Meanwhile residents of Dukun and Srumbung sub-districts continued life as usual on Sunday. They live in an area considered to be one of the most vulnerable to heat clouds.
"No one has left their home, but we'll stay alert," Sumanto, an official at Dukun sub-district told The Jakarta Post.
Another resident of Srumbung sub-district, Ranu, said that sand miners had only temporarily stopped working.
Health officials have distributed thousands of masks to residents in three main districts on the east side of the mountain as well as in the cities of Klaten and Surakarta to protect people from ash after Saturday's volcanic activity.
Ash rain, which contains sulfur, magnesium and silica, can cause respiratory illnesses, skin irritation, diarrhea and severe eye infections.
As of Sunday, Merapi's alert status remain unchanged since it was raised to the second highest level. The volcanology office recognizes four danger levels for a volcano -- normal, aware, prepared and alert (Awas) -- the last being the signal for an imminent eruption. (44/edt)