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Mount Sinabung welcomes Idul Fitri with volcanic fireworks
Mount Sinabung shot a cloud of black debris 5,000 meters into the atmosphere early on Tuesday, causing a shower of ash to fall up to 8 kilometers away in its most powerful eruption since the volcano became active last week
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ount Sinabung shot a cloud of black debris 5,000 meters into the atmosphere early on Tuesday, causing a shower of ash to fall up to 8 kilometers away in its most powerful eruption since the volcano became active last week.
The latest and fifth eruption took place just seven hours after visiting President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono and his entourage left the shelters for evacuees in Karo regency, North Sumatra.
Yudhoyono delayed his departure from the North Sumatra capital, Medan, for around 30 minutes to learn of the volcano’s latest activity from Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Center (PVMBG) chief Surono.
Yudhoyono was scheduled to depart from North Sumatra at 8:45 a.m.
The President went to Mt. Sinabung on Monday, visiting makeshift shelters hosting more than 21,000 refugees and inspecting disaster management operations or in his first visit since.
Surono said he had explained to the President the volcano’s increasing activity since the Tuesday
eruption.
The agency had issued its highest-level volcanic activity warning to residents in the area, he said.
Until noon on Tuesday, the volcano, which until 10 days ago had been dormant for 400 years, had triggered 24 volcanic tremors, he said.
Surono said the latest eruption, which took place just after midnight, was forecast by the agency nearly two hours beforehand.
Warnings had been conveyed to Karo Police to make sure they could evacuate all police officers assigned to secure houses of residents located within a 6-kilometer radius of Sinabung.
“The eruption on Tuesday was the strongest so far. This is the first time the volcano’s eruption caused a shower of ash,” Surono told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
As a result of the Tuesday eruption, which lasted 37 seconds, electricity in the area was cut off.
“We were overwhelmed when the electricity went down because all of our equipment relies on electricity. We used backup batteries to power all our devices,” he said.
The Tuesday eruption cut off power to at least seven villages. The power was not back to normal on Tuesday afternoon.
A representative of state electricity company PT PLN’s Karo regency branch, Ali Ginting, said the blackout was likely a result of a short circuit.
Berastepu village resident Juara Sitepu said he had watched the latest eruption while on guard at his village. “I felt the tremor and the eruption was so strong. I also watched the mountain spew debris high into the sky,” said the man, who has now moved to a temporary shelter.
With the latest eruption, more and more residents have returned to the shelters.
Some had previously returned to their homes to check on farms and belongings.
The main coordinating post for the refugees reported that the number of refugees in shelters had reached 24,321 people on Tuesday.
The government sent dozens of trucks to the mountain on Tuesday to help ferry residents back to the shelters.
All of the refugees were accommodated in 26 locations in eight districts across the regency, as well as another district in nearby Langkat regency.
Karo Regent Daniel Daulat Sinulingga said he had instructed his staff to increase their alertness.
Daniel said the administration had decided that none of the officials in charge of disaster management and prevention would take Idul Fitri holidays.
”The team will continue working during the Idul Fitri celebration to serve and take care of the refugees,” he said.
