Yogyakarta on Highest Merapi Alert

Camelia Pasandaran & Candra Malik

With Central Java’s Mount Merapi experiencing its worst eruptions in more than a century, the Indonesian president and his three top ministers on Friday arrived in Yogyakarta to reassure residents and ensure a quicker response to the unfolding disaster.

The volcano, which has been continually erupting since Oct. 26, sent deadly heat clouds down its slopes on Thursday night and Friday morning, killing 64 people and destroying villages previously thought to be safe.

The deaths brought the toll to 122, with more than 150,000 people displaced, presidential staffer Andi Arief said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono arrived in Yogyakarta on Friday night and had set up his command post at Gedung Agung, the presidential residence there. The city of 400,000 people is 30 kilometers south of the volcano.

Yogyakarta Mayor Herry Zudianto late on Thursday declared that the city was at the highest alert level.

The authorities also widened the radius of the danger zone around the mountain for the second time in a week, from 15 km to the present 20 km.

It was at 10 km immediately after the eruption cycle began.

Lahar, or cold lava washed down by heavy rains, on Friday afternoon begun to flow through the Code River that runs down the southern slope of Merapi and through the heart of Yogyakarta, causing panic among those living on its banks.

“Since Friday at dawn, residents in seven subdistricts have been told to be ready to be evacuated at any time,” Zudianto said.

Yogyakarta’s international airport was closed as ash clouds billowed from the 2,914-meter peak to the altitude of cruising jetliners and the runway was covered in grey soot. Officials said the airport remain shut until at least Saturday.

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Reuters Photo

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