Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Indonesia volcano eruption keeps airport shut
KARANGASEM, Indonesia — A volcano gushing towering columns of ash closed the airport on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali for a second day, disrupting travel for tens of thousands of people.
Mount Agung has been hurling clouds of white and dark gray ash about 9,800 feet into the atmosphere since the weekend. Lava is welling up in the crater, sometimes reflected as a reddish-yellow glow in the ash plumes. Its explosions can be heard about 7½ miles away.
The local airport authority said today that closure for another 24 hours was required for safety reasons. Volcanic ash poses a threat to aircraft, and ash from Agung was moving south-southwest toward the airport. Ash has reached a height of about 30,000 feet as it drifts across the island.
Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency raised the volcano alert to the highest level Monday and expanded the danger zone to 6 miles in some places. It said a larger eruption is possible.
Videos released by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency showed a mudflow of volcanic debris and water, known as a lahar, moving down the volcano’s slopes. The agency said lahars could increase because it is the rainy season, and it warned people to stay away from rivers.
The volcano’s previous major eruption, in 1963, killed about 1,100 people.
Spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said at a news conference in Jakarta that the extension of the danger zone, which previously was about 4½ miles, affects 22 villages and about 90,000 to 100,000 people who were ordered to flee. He said about 40,000 people evacuated but that others had not left because they either feel safe or don’t want to abandon their livestock.
“Authorities will comb the area to persuade them,” he said. “If needed, we will forcibly evacuate them.”
About 25,000 people were already staying in evacuation centers after an increase in tremors from the mountain sparked an evacuation in September.
Lava rising in the crater “will certainly spill over to the slopes,” Sutopo said.
Villager Putu Sulasmi said she fled with her husband and other family members to a sports hall that is serving as an evacuation center.
“We came here on motorcycles. We had to evacuate because our house is just 3 miles from the mountain. We were so scared with the thundering sound and red light,” she said.
The family had stayed at the same sports center in September and October, when the volcano’s alert was at its highest level for several weeks. At the time, it didn’t erupt. The family returned to its village about a week ago.
“If it has to erupt, let it erupt now rather than leaving us in uncertainty. I’ll just accept it if our house is destroyed,” she said.
Ash has settled on villages and resorts around the volcano and disrupted daily life outside the immediate danger zone.
“Ash that covered the trees and leaves is very difficult for us because the cows that we have cannot eat,” said Made Kerta Kartika, a resident of Buana Giri village. “I have to move the cows from this village.”
The closure of the airport has stranded tens of thousands of travelers. Flight information boards showed rows of cancellations as tourists arrived at the busy hub expecting to catch flights home.
More than 400 flights were canceled on Monday and nearly 60,000 travelers affected, an airport spokesman said.
The closure had a ripple effect across Indonesia, causing delays at other airports because Bali’s I Gusti Ngurah Rai airport is a national hub with many transiting flights.
Bali is Indonesia’s top tourist destination, attracting about 5 million visitors a year.
A Chinese tour service, Shenzhen PT Enjoy Bali International, had about 20 groups totaling 500 to 600 travelers from the Chinese cities of Wuhan, Changsha and Guangzhou in Bali, according an executive, Liao Yuling, who was on the island.
“They are mostly retirees or relatively high- end, so they don’t say they are especially anxious to rush home,” she said.
If the airport stays closed, Liao said, they would head by ferry and bus to Surabaya on Java island, where the company’s charter flights could pick them up.
Indonesia’s Directorate General of Land Transportation said 100 buses were being deployed to Bali’s international airport and to ferry terminals to help travelers stranded by the eruption.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” and has more than 120 active volcanoes.