‘Marathon’ Merapi Blasts Continue

By Candra Malik & Dessy Sagita

Mount Merapi is still not showing signs that its eruptive phase will end soon, and some of the more than 50,000 people it has displaced have begun wondering when they’ll be able to return home.

On Sunday afternoon, one of the world’s most active volcanoes erupted again, spewing heat clouds as high as four kilometers that went off into various directions, unlike their usual southward course.

This came after the calm that followed its biggest eruption this week early just after midnight on Saturday, which caused panic in the streets of Yogyakarta some 30 kilometers away and prompted officials to re-evacuate those who had returned home.

Elsewhere, reports said at least two people were killed in the mass panic that ensued after Saturday’s eruption, bringing the death toll to 38. One of them, said Widi Sutikno, head of the Merapi Disaster Mitigation Command Post, was a motorist hit by a truck as dense volcanic ash cut visibility to only two meters.

Surono, head of the Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Agency (PVMBG), said the danger was far from over but assured that the deadly superheated clouds would not reach the outer ring of the disaster zone. The maximum radius of the head clouds glide is 10 kilometers from the mountain’s peak, he said.

“Stay calm and wear a mask. Mount Merapi will cough again. The eruption is like a marathon, not a sprint. Panicking would only could cause injuries,” he told the Jakarta Globe.

People living in the shelters, though, have become increasingly uneasy and wanted to go home.

“I don’t know how we are going to live like this, it’s been almost a week and it’s acutely uncomfortable,” Sumiatun, a resident of Pangukrejo hamlet, Cangkringan, Sleman, said on Sunday.

Pangukrejo, located only 1.5 kilometers from Kinahrejo, the most affected area, was severely damaged by the eruption.

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AFP Photo/Adek Berry

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