World News | Indonesia's Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki Erupts for Second Time in Week
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. Indonesia's Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki unleashed towering columns of ash into the air on Thursday, in an even larger eruption than the one that killed nine people and injured dozens of others three days ago.
Maumere (Indonesia), Nov 7 (AP) Indonesia's Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki unleashed towering columns of ash into the air on Thursday, in an even larger eruption than the one that killed nine people and injured dozens of others three days ago.
There were no reports of casualties from the latest eruption as residents living in the danger zone spanning a radius of 7 kilometres from the crater had been evacuated to other villages, said Kensius Didimus, a local disaster agency official.
The 1,584-metre volcano on the remote island of Flores shot billowing columns of ash 11 times on Thursday, with the latest and largest rising 8,000 metres, said Hadi Wijaya, the head of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation.
The volcano had shown less activity since Monday's deadly eruption killed nine people and injured 64 others.
Monday's eruption affected more than 10,000 people in 10 villages. Nearly 6,000 villagers moved into makeshift emergency shelters after the eruption, which destroyed seven schools, nearly two dozen houses and a convent on the majority-Catholic island.
Volcanic materials, including smoldering rocks, lava and hot, thumb-size fragments of gravel and ash were thrown up to 7 kilometres from the crater on Monday.
While visiting the devastated areas, officials found craters where rocks fell during eruptions, up to 13 metres wide and 5 metres deep, in several places including a destroyed school.
“It shows a difference in characteristics from the previous eruption in January,” said Wijaya, head of the volcanology centre. He added that the earlier eruption mostly unleashed volcanic materials around the peak, followed by lava flows.
“We are still analysing the change of Lewotobi's eruption character, which will be used by the government to determine a safe relocation site for residents,” Wijaya said.
He said his agency has asked the local government of East Nusa Tenggara province to close the only road connecting Maumere, the island's largest city, to the neighbouring district of Larantuka, as it passes through the volcano's danger zone.
The country's volcano monitoring agency increased Lewotobi Laki Laki's alert status to the highest level and more than doubled the exclusion zone to a 7-kilometre radius on Monday, prohibiting any activity in that area.
Authorities warned the thousands of people who fled not to return home, as the government planned to move about 16,000 residents out of the danger zone, said National Disaster Management Agency head Suharyanto, who like many Indonesians uses a single name.
“Permanent relocation is considered as a long-term mitigation measure to anticipate eruption in the future,” Suharyanto told reporters after visiting the devastated areas Thursday.
He said residents of the hardest-hit villages would be relocated within the next six months, and each family waiting for a new house will be compensated 500,000 rupiah (USD 32) per month.
About 6,500 people were evacuated in January after Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki began erupting, spewing thick clouds and forcing the government to close the island's Fransiskus Xaverius Seda Airport. No casualties or major damage were reported, but the airport has remained closed due to seismic activity.
Lewotobi Laki Laki is one of a pair of stratovolcanoes in the East Flores district of East Nusa Tenggara province, known locally as the husband-and-wife mountains. “Laki laki” means man, while its mate is Lewotobi Perempuan, or woman.
The vulcanology centre also said another volcano, Mount Marapi in West Sumatra province — one of the country's most active volcanoes — erupted again on Thursday, spewing thick columns of ash at least three times and blanketing nearby villages with debris. No casualties were reported.
Lewotobi Laki Laki is one of the 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, an archipelago of 280 million people. The country is prone to earthquakes, landslides and volcanic activity because it sits along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)