Yogya now under threat?

Yogyakarta. The city of Yogyakarta is now facing a very real threat from the rumbling Mount Merapi, geologists said on Friday, acknowledging that it was now very difficult to anticipate the volcano’s next move.

“I still believe that the heat clouds from Mount Merapi will not go beyond 20 kilometers from the mountain’s crater,” Surono, head of the Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Agency (PVMBG), said on Friday.

“But who can put a stop to the wind? Who knows where the wind will blow? The wind has now carried the volcanic ash, sand and gravel into the middle of the city,” he said.

Winds, he said, were also responsible for the heat clouds gliding as far as 17 kilometers from the crater on Friday — something geologists never expected to happen — and destroying hamlets previously thought safe.

Surono added that pyroclastic flows — fast-moving clouds of superheated ash and gas — were not the only deadly threats from the volcanic eruptions now referred to as the worst in 140 years.

Lava and lahar — mudflow or debris flow composed of pyroclastic material, rocky debris and water — are real threats that cannot be overlooked, he said.

The several rivers flowing down the slopes of Merapi have now carried lava and lahar to various regions surrounding the volcano.

One of these, Code River, passes through the middle of Yogyakarta city, which was placed on the highest alert level following Friday’s massive eruption.

“There is no alternative but to move away from Code River,” Surono said.

“Do not watch the swift current in the river, do not stand on the bridge, do not stay in houses located along the river.

If lava damages the riverbanks, then the risk is very high.

It will break down anything along its path.

It can be fierce as the heat clouds will kill anyone in the way.”

Surono appealed to residents comply with government orders to evacuate the area.

“Do not argue or fight with the authorities from local governments,” he said.

“We are facing a disaster that we haven’t seen in a century.”

Raden Sukhyar, head of the geology department at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, said Merapi had released more than 50 million cubic meters of volcanic material since its first eruption on Oct. 26.

He said the amount of volcanic material released by Merapi over about 10 days was already half of the total volcanic material ejected by Mount Galunggung in Tasikmalaya, West Java, over a 10-month eruption phase in 1982.

“Mount Merapi has showed us an extraordinary number of volcanic material bursts. We do not know anymore what to do, other than call on people to keep at a safe distance. What happens in the coming days could be even worse than now,” he said.

There is also the threat to respiratory health due to the ash.

Tutik Anuriah, a division head at Yogyakarta’s Environmental Pollution Control Agency, said the air quality in the city and surrounding areas was continuing to deteriorate.

“Ideally, there should be no more than 230 micrograms per cubic meter of solid particles in the air. That is standard quality. However, in 12 regions, the total suspended particles in the air has exceeded normal quality by three times,” she said.

“The worst was around Pakem in Sleman. The amount of solid particles in the air there reached 1,819 micrograms per cubic meter.”

Merapi’s volcanic ash, she added, contains 0.25 micron silica, sulfur and methane, which poses a health risk for people.

“Always keep your nose and mouth covered by a mask.”

(all this according to the Jak Globe)

Blast from Indonesia volcano raises deaths to 122
AP, Yogyakarta | Fri, 11/05/2010 7:33 PM | National


Searing gas avalanched down an Indonesian volcano with a thunderous roar, torching houses and trees and incinerating villagers as they fled Mount Merapi's worst eruption in a century. Dozens of bodies found Friday raised the death toll to 122.

The injured - with clothes, blankets and even mattresses fused to their skin by the 1,400 degree Fahrenheit (750 degree Celsius) heat - were carried away on stretchers following the first big explosion just before midnight.

Soldiers joined rescue operations in hardest-hit Bronggang, a village nine miles (15 kilometers) from the crater, pulling at least 78 bodies from homes and streets blanketed by ash up to one-foot (30-centimeters) deep.

Crumpled roofs, charred carcasses of cattle, and broken chairs - all layered in white soot - dotted the smoldering landscape. Merapi was active throughout the day Friday.

The volcano, in the heart of densely populated Java island, has erupted scores of times, killing more than 1,500 people in the last century alone. But tens of thousands of people live on its rolling slopes, drawn to soil made fertile by molten lava and volcanic debris.

Its latest activity started Oct. 26. After Friday's explosion - said by volcanologists to be the biggest since the 1870s - officials announced by loudspeaker that the mountain's danger zone had been expanded to 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the crater.

Previously, villages like Bronggang were still considered to be in the "safe zone."

"The heat surrounded us and there was white smoke everywhere," said Niti Raharjo, 47, who was thrown from his motorbike along with his 19-year-old son while trying to flee.

"I saw people running, screaming in the dark, women so scared they fell unconscious," he said from a hospital where they were both being treated for burns.

"There was an explosion that sounded like it was from a war ... and it got worse, the ash and debris raining down."

The greatest danger posed by Merapi has always been pyroclastic flows - like those that roared down the southern slopes at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour).

With bodies found in front of houses and in streets, it appeared that many of the villagers died from the searing gas while trying to escape, said Col. Tjiptono, a deputy police chief.

More than 150 injured people - most with burns and some with respiratory problems, broken bones and cuts - waited to be treated at the Sardjito state hospital, where the bodies piled up in the morgue, and two other hospitals.

JP