Perilous Times
Death Toll Climbs as Tens of Thousands Flee Indonesia volcano amid
fears of More Intense Eruptions
By SARAH DiLORENZO
The Associated Press
Monday, November 8, 2010; 1:59 AM
MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia -- ens of thousands of Frightened residents
fled a bustling city of 400,000 at the foot of Indonesia's rumbling
volcano Monday, cramming onto trains, buses and rented vehicles as
authorities warned Mount Merapi could erupt again at any time.
A mass burial late Sunday for many of the 155 people killed in the last
two weeks served as a reminder of the mountain's devastating power that
culminated in its deadliest blast in 80 years that sent hot clouds of
gas, rocks and debris avalanching down its slopes.
"My parents have been calling ... saying 'You have to get out of there!
You have to come home!'" said Linda Ervana, a 21-year-old history
student who was waiting with friends at a train station in the
university town of Yogyakarta, 20 miles (30 kilometers) away.
After failing to get tickets, they rented a minibus with other
classmates.
"It feels like that movie '2012,'" said her 22-year-old friend, Paulina
Setin. "Like a disaster in a movie."
Concerns about airborne ash after Friday's massive eruption prompted
many international airlines to cancel flights to the capital, Jakarta,
just days before President Barack Obama's planned trip to Indonesia -
his second stop in a 10-day Asian tour.
All were flying again Monday, and White House officials said Obama was
still scheduled to touch down on Tuesday.
Merapi, one of the world's most active volcanoes, has erupted many
times in the last century, killing more than 1,400. But Friday was the
mountain's deadliest day since 1930, with over 120 lives lost.
Islam mandates that the dead be buried quickly, so authorities gave
relatives three days to identify their loved ones. To speed up the
process, most families chose to have their relatives interred in a mass
grave - a common practice in Indonesia following a disaster.
One by one the bodies - some too charred to be identified - were
lowered into a massive trench in the shadow of the volcano.
Merapi was still issuing explosive roars Monday as it shot clouds of
gas and debris up to 3,000 feet (1 kilometer) in the air as ash and
pyroclastic flows poured down its slopes.
"Based on what we're seeing now, it could erupt again any time," said
Surono, a state volcanologist.
The National Disaster Management Agency said the overall death toll
from the volcano climbed from 138 to 141 on Monday after search and
rescue teams found more bodies on the mountain.
The Indonesian government has put Yogyakarta on high alert.
The city's airport was closed yet again on Monday and the ash hung so
thickly in the air that breathing became painful and clothes stunk of
smoke after any time spent outdoors.
Though there have been no orders to evacuate Yogyakarta, many residents
have decided to go on their own. Small hamlets on the edge of the city
looked like ghost towns, houses shuttered, some with laundry still
hanging outside.
"What choice do we have?" asked Sukirno, 37, as he sped away with his
wife and their 8-year-old daughter on a motorbike, saying they would
join relatives far away over fears the effect of the ash on their
health.
The biggest threat to the city, experts say, is not searing gas clouds,
but the Code River, which flows right into the city's heart from the
9,700-foot (3,000-meter) mountain.
It could act as a conduit for deadly volcanic mudflows that form in
heavy rains, racing at speeds of up to 60 mph (100 kph) and destroying
everything in their path. A thick, black volcanic sludge has already
inundated one city neighborhood that starts at the river bank and
climbs a hillside.
In Romomangun, the mud burst the banks and poured into buildings.
It has filled a path that runs along the river - which is usually about
three feet (a meter) below a retaining wall but is now even with it.
The sludge also rushed into a small, one-room building on the bank that
houses a public bathroom. The top of the entry door is now at waist
level.
Nearly 280,000 people - many of whom normally live on the fertile
slopes of the volcano - have jammed into emergency shelters. Many have
complained of poor sanitation, saying there were not enough toilets or
clean drinking water.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 235 million people, is prone to
earthquakes and volcanoes because it sits along the Pacific "Ring of
Fire," a horseshoe-shaped string of faults that lines the Pacific Ocean.
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Associated Press writer Nini Karmini in Jakarta contributed to this
report.