Rescuers were yesterday searching for survivors on the slopes of the highest volcano on Indonesia’s island of Java after it was rocked by an eruption that killed at least 13 people, as smoldering debris and thick mud hampered their efforts.
Mount Semeru in Lumajang district in East Java province spewed thick columns of ash more than 12km into the sky, and searing gas and lava flowed down after a sudden eruption on Saturday triggered by heavy rains.
Villages and nearby towns were blanketed with falling ash and several hamlets were buried under tonnes of mud from volcanic debris.
Photo: AP
Authorities warned the thousands of people who fled the volcano’s wrath not to return during yesterday’s lull in activity.
However, some villagers were desperate to check on livestock and possessions left behind. In several areas, everything — from the thinnest tree branch to couches and chairs inside homes — was caked with ash.
“There’s no life there ... trees, farms, houses are scorched, everything is covered in heavy gray ash,” Haryadi Purnomo of East Java’s search and rescue agency said.
He said that other areas were virtually untouched.
Search and rescue efforts were temporary suspended yesterday afternoon because of fears that hot ash and debris could tumble down from the crater due to heavy rains.
The debris and lava mixed with rainfall to form thick mud that destroyed the main bridge connecting Lumajang and the neighboring district of Malang, as well as a smaller bridge, said Thoriqul Haq, the Lumajang district chief.
The eruption eased pressure that had been building under a lava dome perched on the crater, but experts warned that the dome could still further collapse, causing an avalanche of the blistering gas and debris trapped beneath it.
A thunderstorm and days of rain, which eroded and partly collapsed the dome atop the 3,676m Semeru, triggered the eruption, said Eko Budi Lelono, who heads the geological survey center.
Semeru, a stratovolcano, is also known as Mahameru, meaning “The Great Mountain” in Sanskrit. It has erupted many times over the past 200 years. Still, as with other volcanoes — it is one of 129 under watch in Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago — more than 62,000 people call Sumeru’s fertile slopes home. It last erupted in January, with no casualties.
Indonesia is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because it sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of fault lines.
Fifty-four percent of the country’s nearly 270 million people live on Java, the country’s most densely populated area.
Officials said earlier they had hoped they could avoid casualties by closely monitoring the volcano.
Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Abdul Muhari said 57 people had been hospitalized, mostly with burns, respiratory problems and other injuries.
He said rescuers were still searching for seven residents of Curah Kobokan village.
More than 900 villagers streamed into makeshift emergency shelters after Saturday’s powerful eruption, but many others defied official warnings and chose to remain in their homes, saying they had to tend to their livestock and protect their property, Purnomo said.
“We’ll do everything we can to evacuate them by preparing trucks and motorbikes for them to flee at any time,” he said.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said he instructed his Cabinet ministers and disaster and military officials to coordinate the response.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique