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Indonesia volcano on top alert for 6th day
15/02/2001 09:52 - (SA)
Jakarta - Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano continued rumbling and spewing lava on Thursday, prompting monitors to maintain a top-level alert status for a sixth straight day.
Lava and hot clouds ran down Merapi's slopes "several times before dawn but they did not travel far", vulcanologist Hadi Sunarto told AFP from the Kaliurang monitoring outpost on the southwest slope of Merapi.
"The furthest distance was 3km from the crater heading toward the tri-river" area of Lamat, Senowo and
Bebeng, said Sunarto.
He said Merapi's level of volcanic activity still remained "high" on Thursday, meaning that there had been no decision to take the volcano off the top alert level.
The top alert level means eruption is imminent.
A total of 321 residents of Keningar village in Magelang district,
some 9km west of Merapi's crater, were
"still in grave danger" if the volcano erupts, he said.
"Although they return to their homes and work during the day and sleep at the evacuation posts at night, they are still in danger," Sunarto said.
Merapi, which towers over the central Java plain, has been rumbling ominously since Saturday, when hundreds of people were evacuated
and authorities announced the top alert level after Merapi belched
heat clouds and lava that ran 6.5km down its
slopes.
Officials also said a build-up of millions of tons of lava in a
new dome inside the old Merapi crater remained "a major concern".
The Sleman district, which faces the biggest danger from Merapi, has prepared 500 million rupiah ($52 000) to evacuate 12 000 residents should the need arise.
But most residents have returned to their homes, demanding only
that officials provide them with more surgical masks to enable them
to cope with the ash rain which has turned the surrounding
countryside white.
The Indonesian vulcanology office recognises four danger levels for
a volcano - normal, beware, be prepared and alert (Awas) - the
last being the signal for an imminent eruption.
In 1997, heat clouds and ash rain prompted the evacuation of at least 18 000 people. When Merapi last erupted in 1994 at least 60 people were killed and more than 6,000 fled to safer ground.
Since 1930, Merapi eruptions have killed around 1 300 people. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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