President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered Cabinet ministers and senior government officials to coordinate effectively with local authorities to manage the Mount Merapi disaster and help victims, but refrained from criticizing local authorities.

He also asked officials to concentrate on their jobs, saying he would only meet with them when urgent problems arose that required his intervention.

“I want assurances that my instructions are carried out at both the national and local levels,” Yudhoyono said.

The President, who arrived in Yogyakarta on Saturday afternoon, also received reports from National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) head Syamsul Maarif, who is in charge of coordinating all emergency and rescue operations there. The President was scheduled to visit hospitals and refugee camps.

Meanwhile, the continuing eruption of gas clouds and lava accompanied by thunderous sounds
from Mt. Merapi have driven many Yogyakarta residents to flee the ancient city and seek temporary
refuge with family members in other towns.

“I will be staying with relatives in Ponorogo, East Java. But for how long, I’m not sure,” Yari from Ngaglik district In Yogyakarta’s Sleman regency, said Saturday.

Yari took his wife, two children and parents out of Yogyakarta in a rented car. “I’m afraid the volcanic ash will affect the health of our kids,” he said, adding that his younger child was just a few months old.

Antok Agustinus of Tanen village in Pakem district, Sleman, some 9 kilometers from the volcano crater, is also leaving town. He and a few neighbors have left for Sangkal Putung in Klaten, Central Java.

“The sounds from Merapi were really frightening. Our houses shook and we were hit by showers of sand and stones,” Antok said.

He and hundreds of his neighbors had previously sought shelter at the Tanen evacuation center. Yet as Merapi shows signs of intensifying, they have been forced several times to move farther away. Their last shelter was at the campus of the Indonesian Islamic University.

“When the hazard zone was expanded until to a 20-kilometer radius around the crater, we had to move again. It was then that we decided to flee to Klaten. It is safe there, at least for a while,” he said.

Residents living outside the 20-kilometer radius are also making the decision to move.

“My wife and kids are afraid of the sounds of the eruptions. That’s why I decided to take them to my in-law’s house in Sidoarjo, East Java. We’ll return when things get back to normal,” said Kasan, a resident of Ngaglik, which is located 21 kilometers from Merapi’s crater.

Bus and train stations are scenes of a mass exodus as scared residents look to leave Yogyakarta, while tens of thousands others have been moved to Maguwoharjo Stadium, which has been transformed into an emergency shelter.

Residents have been evacuated to the shelter since the hazard zone was expanded to 20 kilometers following Friday’s eruption, considered Merapi’s most powerful in more than a century.

Thousands of others have taken refuge at other evacuation centers, including the Purna Budaya building at Gadjah Mada University, the Yogyakarta State University sports hall and a number of houses.

The huge number of evacuees has prompted locals to work together by providing rooms in respective houses. In Sleman, such shelters are dotted along Jl. Kaliurang in the Kentungan area, with signs saying “We receive refugees”.

Imam of Bendosari in Magelang, for example, is currently sheltering 500 people at his house.

“Sometimes we don’t know what we are going to eat tomorrow as we don’t have enough here. We’re not a registered shelter, but we are willing to help others,” he said.

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