Thousands evacuated as Mount Ruang erupts
Volcano forces airport closure and prompts warning about falling debris
Indonesian rescuers raced to evacuate thousands of people yesterday after a volcano erupted five times, forcing authorities to close a nearby airport and issue a warning about falling debris that could cause a tsunami.
The crater of Mount Ruang flamed with lava against a backdrop of lightning bolts overnight after erupting four times on Wednesday. The alert level was raised to the highest of a fourtiered system.
The volcano was still billowing smoke yesterday morning, causing the closure of the international airport in Manado city on Sulawesi island for 24 hours. Houses on the island of Tagulandang were riddled with holes from falling volcanic rocks, and residents were preparing to leave.
“The current condition, particularly the road condition, is covered by volcanic material,” local rescuer Ikram Al Ulah said. “Currently, many people are still wandering around, maybe to evacuate precious goods from their houses.”
Authorities said they were rushing to evacuate 11,000 residents from the nearby area. Some were already trying to flee in a panic, according to officials.
“Last night people evacuated on their own but without direction due to the volcano’s eruption and materials in the form of small rocks that fell, so the people scattered to find evacuation routes,” said Jandry Paendong, an official from the local search and rescue agency.
He said 20 staff were helping evacuate residents along the coastline near the volcano in rubber boats.
Authorities also evacuated a prison on Tagulandang island, ferrying 17 inmates along with 11 officials and 19 residents by boat to Likupang port in northern Sulawesi, according to Ikram. The evacuation was requested by the prison chief because the facility sits directly across from the volcano, said the rescuer.
Tourists and residents were warned to remain outside a six-kilometre exclusion zone.
More than 800 people were initially taken to safety from Ruang to Tagulandang island after the first eruption on Tuesday evening, before four more eruptions on Wednesday. Authorities warned of a possible tsunami as a result of the eruptions.
“The communities in Tagulandang island, particularly those living near the beach, [need] to be on alert for the potential ejection of incandescent rocks, hot cloud discharges and tsunami caused by the collapse of the volcano’s body into the sea,” Hendra Gunawan, head of Indonesia’s volcanology agency, said in a statement on Wednesday.
The authorities’ fears were compounded by previous experience. In 2018, the crater of Mount Anak Krakatoa between Java and Sumatra partly collapsed when a major eruption sent huge chunks of the volcano sliding into the ocean, triggering a tsunami that killed more than 400 people and injured thousands.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago, experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc where tectonic plates collide that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
Mount Ruang’s eruption led to the closure of Sam Ratulangi International Airport in Manado city, located more than 100km from the volcano, for 24 hours until Thursday evening.
The airport runways were shut “due to the spread of volcanic ash which could endanger flight safety,” said Ambar Suryoko, head of the Manado region airport authority.