MOUNT KELUD, Indonesia (AP) - Experts say a deadly Indonesian volcano is getting ready to blow, but thousands of residents near the mountain are ignoring evacuation warnings.
The volcano (Mount Kelud) is spewing clouds of white smoke and scientists say the temperature of its crater lake is soaring. They say it has reached 168 degrees, spiking by more than 75 degrees in the last 24 hours and indicating a blast could be imminent.
Despite the threat, authorities say 25,000 people remain in the danger zone around the mountain. Officials have declared a 6-mile zone around the peak off-limits, but they’ve not been stopping people from entering.
One 74-year-old farmer says if he went to a shelter, he wouldn’t be able to make any money. Plus, he says he’s seen the volcano erupt three times before and knows which way the mud, ash and rock will flow.
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Source: http://www.kdbc.com/
November 5th, 2007
SUGIHWARAS, Indonesia, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Hundreds more people have been evacuated from around Indonesia’s Mount Kelud volcano in East Java on Thursday after more than 600 tremors were recorded, an official said.
Authorities raised the alert at Mount Kelud, one of Indonesia’s deadliest volcanoes, to maximum two weeks ago amid signs of an imminent eruption.
“There have been more tremors than at the time we increased the alert to the highest level last month,” said Umar Rosadi, a vulcanologist at the volcano monitoring post.
After the alert was raised, thousands of people were evacuated from a 10-km (6-mile) zone around Kelud, but many had returned home, fearing for the safety of their possessions.
Rosadi said magma was 700 metres (2,296 feet) below the crater and could shoot out if it had enough energy.
Some residents living on the slopes of the volcano have refused to leave, saying they know how to take care of themselves in the event of an eruption.
Their representatives have signed an agreement with officials stating that they will not hold the government responsible should anything happen to them.
Meanwhile, thousands of people are at risk from volcanic lahar on Mount Guntur in West Java as dams built to collect the material on the slopes start to overflow, officials warned.
The amount of lahar, a mix of mud and lava, from Mount Guntur has swelled after heavy rains and as locals continued to mine sand and stones, said Saut Simatupang, an official with Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation.
“The volcano is active but there’s no increased intensity. What we are concerned (with) is a possible flow of lahar from the dams. We already issued a recommendation for evacuation two weeks ago,” Simatupang said.
The 2,249-metre (7,378-feet) volcano in Garut district, which lies 200 km (125 miles) southeast of the capital Jakarta, is popular with tourists for its hot springs and waterfalls.
Garut police chief Eko Budi said not enough had been done to prepare for a possible disaster and about 6,000-10,000 people were at risk.
Indonesia has faced a series of deadly natural disasters in recent years and has the highest number of active volcanoes of any country. It sits on a belt of intense volcanic and seismic activity know as the “Pacific Ring of Fire”.
Indonesian officials were also closely monitoring three other volcanoes for increased activity.
The second-highest alert has also been issued for Mount Anak Krakatau, which has been throwing up showers of ash.
The volcano, known as the “Child of Krakatau”, lies in the Sunda strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra and is about 130 km (80 miles) west of the capital Jakarta.
It gradually formed after the famous Krakatau volcano blew up in a massive eruption in 1883, triggering tsunamis and killing thousands of people.
Simatupang said there had been increased activity on the volcano, but it was not a big danger to people.
People have been advised to stay out of a 3-km zone around the volcano, where tourists often land from small boats to scramble up its newly formed slopes.
Alerts have also been issued for Mount Soputan, in North Sulawesi, which erupted last week spewing columns of ash 1,000 metres, and Mount Karangetang off Sulawesi.
(Additional reporting by Mita Valina Liem and Ahmad Pathoni in Jakarta)
Source: http://uk.reuters.com/
November 5th, 2007
JAKARTA (Thomson Financial) - The number of tourists arriving in Indonesia rose 13.5 percent to 3.36 million in the first nine months, data from the Central Bureau of Statistics showed Thursday.
The increase was driven by a rise of 33.7 percent to 1.29 million arrivals in the resort island of Bali.
Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta airport, the second largest entry point, reported 854,492 arrivals, little changed from 854,323 a year ago.
Batam, an industrial island near Singapore, recorded a 5.1 percent increase to 791,571 arrivals.
In September alone, arrivals via the country’s 15 entry points dropped to 382,461 from 405,604 in the preceding month.
Data from the Tourism Ministry showed 4.87 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia in 2006, with total spending of 4.45 billion US dollars.
Source: http://www.forbes.com/
November 5th, 2007