Heads Up: Massive Volcanic Eruptions In Indonesia (Dialup Warning & Incl. Some Very Graphic Images)

Arientha Primanita | November 08, 2010


Children at Gajah Mada University's evacuation
center watching a cartoon movie on Monday.
(JG Photo/Arientha Primanita)

Yogyakarta. Around 50 child evacuees in Gajah Mada University's sport stadium were visited on Monday by an educational service providing story books, videos and computers with internet connection. The 'Mobil Pintar' ('Smart Car') service came to relieve the boredom of the children who were displaced by the recurrent eruption of nearby Mount Merapi.

Muhammad Amin, a student volunteer, said the morning's activities were to bring entertainment to take their minds off the traumatic events of the previous few days. "Volunteers from the Faculty of Psychology help with counseling and entertainment activities for the children," Amin told the Jakarta Globe.

The volunteers led the children in singing and dancing activities, and afterward they gathered on mats behind the Smart Car to watch an Upin and Ipin cartoon.

Dian, 10, and his sisters, Yuli and Dina, who came to the evacuee camp with their mother and relatives from Kaliurang Timur, said they were excited to see the smart car. "We want to read the picture books," the children said.

From: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/smart-car-entertains-displaced-indonesian-children-in-merapi-shelter/405489

Katrin Figge | November 08, 2010


A local resident carries a cat on his motorcycle
as residents are evacuated to a safer place in
Cangkringan village in Yogyakarta, on Sunday, during
Mount Merapi's eruption.(EPA Photo/Adi Weda)

While Mount Merapi continues to spew hot clouds and ash in what has been called its worst eruption in more than a century, rescue teams are tirelessly evacuating citizens to safety. But for 25 volunteers, it’s not just humans who are in desperate need of saving. Volunteers from the Jakarta Animal Aid Network, Animal Friends Jogja and Center for Orangutan Protection left the Indonesian capital on Oct. 27, a day after the volcano first erupted, and immediately headed for the affected area to save pets and livestock.

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“The other team is going up the mountain every day in our pick-up truck from Jakarta to find grass and corn to feed the livestock. The last one is sweeping the area, looking for any animals that were left behind, like dogs, cats and birds,” she said.

Of utmost priority, she said, were animals who suffered burns and pets left behind in cages without food or water. Volunteers nurse injured animals back to health by giving them antibiotics and vitamins or rubbing burn ointment on the animals’ skin. Some domestic animals are taken back to the group’s base camp for treatment, while rescued wildlife are handed over to the Yogyakarta Wildlife Rescue Center.

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"The trees are cracking from the heat, branches are falling down. There are a lot of monkeys out there, and they are all starving. They can’t find food anymore. That’s why we brought them corn.”

After almost a week of tireless rescue, the team was suddenly barred from going up Merapi on Saturday, after authorities deemed the situation too dangerous. The same day, the base camp, originally 20 kilometers from the mountain’s crater, was moved to Yogyakarta as authorities widened the danger zone radius.

“We are really concerned about the condition of the animals now,” Haas said. “We don’t know if they are still alive, if they are burnt. It’s so sad because we are unable to take care of them.

“It’s pretty frightening because you are walking through deserted villages where all the people have died already,” Haas said. “It’s like a ghost town, filled with dust and everything. It’s horrible. In the last few days, people started banging on our truck while we were passing by, asking us to feed their animals,” she added. “But with our limited resources, there is only so much we can do.”

Despite the pressures and hazards, Haas said the team had not yet lost hope. “We are trying as much as we can.”

Full article: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/lifeandtimes/rescue-for-merapis-furry-survivors/405547

By foreign affairs editor Peter Cave

Posted 38 minutes ago

Almost 300,000 people have now been displaced from their homes after almost two weeks of eruptions from Indonesia's Merapi volcano in central Java.

The death toll passed 130 at the weekend as the eruption, which is the worst for Mount Merapi since the 1870s, caused the cancellation of most international flights into the country and caused chaos for domestic flights.

Heavy ash has closed airports in Yogyakarta, Solo and Bandung in central Java.

The government has issued a 20-kilometre exclusion zone around Mount Merapi, where most of those who have died have been suffocated by ash and poisonous gases or burnt alive by pyroclastic flows.

However, the devastation covers many hundreds of square kilometres of surrounding countryside where ash as thick as sand and fine as cement powder has created a filthy gray wasteland.

More: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/08/3059674.htm?section=justin

'Like that movie 2012': Terrified crowds flee erupting volcano

'My parents have been calling ... saying 'You have to get out of there! You have to come home!''

msnbc.com news services
updated 2 hours 14 minutes ago

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia — Frightened residents in a bustling city of 400,000 at the foot of Indonesia's rumbling volcano headed out of town Monday, cramming onto trains and buses and even rented vehicles to seek refuge with family and friends far away.

Images of a mass burial for many of the 141 people killed in the last two weeks served as a reminder of the mountain's furry.

"My parents have been calling ... saying 'You have to get out of there! You have to come home!'" said Linda Ervana, a 21-year-old history student who was waiting with friends at a train station in the university town of Yogyakarta, 20 miles from Mount Merapi. After failing to get tickets, they finally decided to rent a minibus with other classmates.

"It feels like that movie '2012,'" said her 22-year-old friend, Paulina Setin. "Like a disaster in a movie."

Full article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40063638/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

Mount Batur Volcanic Slopes Closed to Tourism
Bali's Mount Batur Put Off-Limits to Tourists as Volcanic Status Upgraded to 'Waspada'.

19 volcanoes across Indonesia are currently classified at a "Waspada" alert status, the second highest danger level just short of a "Siaga" status reserved for mountains at an elevated level of tectonic activity.

One of the volcanoes placed on alert is Bali's Mount Batur which, as a result, has been closed to mountain climbers and other activities on its slopes until further notice. Mount Batur is Bali's second highest volcano at 1,717 meters and is located 63 kilometers from the island's capital of Denpasar.

Bali's highest volcano is sacred Mount Agung at 3,142 meters located in the regency of Karangasem.

Indonesia's Volcanology and Disaster Mitigation Center in Badung, West Java, placed Mount Batur in a "waspada" status on November 8, 2010, moving it up from its previous classification at "normal and active" or "awas."

A unique "volcano within a volcano" Mount Batur can be closely observed by motorists driving along the edge of an ancient caldera from the villages of Kintamani and Penelokan. Mount Batur is actively emitting smoke with seismic activity also on the increase, according to the observation post manned the mountain.

According to Gede Bagiada, a government volcano watcher who works at Mount Batur, quoted by BeritaBali.com,: "In a 'waspada' status, the Volcanology and Disaster Mitigation Center is forbidding tourism and mountain climbers from venturing out onto Mount Batur. This prohibition will remain in place until such as time as the mountain resumes a more normal pattern of activity."

From 1804 until 2000 there have been 26 recorded explosions of Mount Batur. Scientist point to evidence of ancient cataclysmic explosions dating back 26,000 years. The most recent devastating explosion took place on August 2, 1926 with lava flows that devastated the village of Batur Kuno at the foot of the mountain.

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