Panicked Merapi Residents Consider Leaving as Eruptions Get Worse

By Dessy Sagita

Pujogiri Sulistya has lived in Yogyakarta all his life, but the 45-year-old never thought he would have to be afraid of the volcano that looms over the bustling city of 400,000 people.

Just after midnight on Friday morning, he realized how wrong he had been all these years.

In an eruption that shook the earth and filled the sky with dark, gray ash, Mount Merapi unleashed its most powerful outburst since it began rumbling on Oct. 26.

“I’ve been living in Yogyakarta all my life, and I had great trust that this town would never be in danger from Merapi erupting,” Pujogiri said.

From his house, he could see a lahar, a dangerous volcanic mudflow, rushing down the Code River, one of the many rivers that run down the slopes of Merapi, but the only one that flows into the city.

“Honestly, right now, I’ve started to doubt myself, and even the government,” he said.

Geologists had initially said the threat from Merapi would not go beyond the initial 10-kilometer disaster zone.

That has since been expanded to 15 km and then to 20 km on Friday after the latest eruption that killed dozens of people in a village located 18 km from the crater.

Even in Yogyakarta’s city center, some 30 kilometers from the volcano, Friday’s eruption caused widespread panic.

Jeff Woldert, who has lived in Yogyakarta for 10 years, was sleeping with his wife and daughter at their home on Jalan Kaliurang, which leads up to the mountain, when Friday’s eruption woke him.

“Around midnight, we heard a loud rumbling noise and my house started to shake for at least an hour,” he said.

“At first I thought it was an earthquake, but then I realized that earthquakes can’t last that long — it must be Merapi.”

Now, the city that is known as the heart of Javanese culture and art is covered in a thick layer of volcanic ash.

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