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SAR team still looking for 2 missing kids
Search and rescue (SAR) workers are still looking for two children from Palue Island in Palue district, Sikka regency, in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT)
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earch and rescue (SAR) workers are still looking for two children from Palue Island in Palue district, Sikka regency, in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).
Members of the NTT provincial and Sikka regency disaster mitigation agencies were still looking for Lenga, 5, and Pio, 7, who have been missing since Saturday after their village was engulfed by hot lava from erupting Mount Rokatenda.
Three elderly people from Rikirole village in Palue district were killed after refusing to be evacuated prior to the eruption.
'The three elderly people were like Mbah Marijan in Mount Merapi. They refused to be evacuated even after the local authorities got involved,' the NTT Disaster Mitigation Agency (BDPB) chief Tini Tadeus told The Jakarta Post when contacted from East Manggarai on Sunday.
Mbah Marijan was believed to be the keeper of Mt. Merapi and have mystical powers. He died after refusing to be evacuated from the slopes of the volcano in October 2010.
Tadeus said bodies of the three elderly residents ' Alosyus Lala, 65, Wea Lala 56, and Petrus Ware, 69 ' had been found by rescue workers.
'They believed that if they were evacuated from the red zone [some three kilometers from the volcano's crater] the lava would destroy their village. That's why they remained there with their two grandchildren,' he said.
He said other villagers had evacuated one day earlier leaving a handful to safeguard their village, including the three victims and two missing children.
Meanwhile, more than 3,000 residents from five villages around the volcano were evacuated to Maumere, the seat of Sikka regency.
Tadeus said the NTT BDPB had prepared 10,000 packages of logistics and food worth Rp 1.6 billion (US$155,839) and 100 tons of rice for those on Palue Island.
NTT Governor, Frans Lebu Raya, said a team consisting of all the related agencies had been deployed to assist victims of the eruption. In addition to searching for missing victims, the team would also rescue residents that remained in the red zone.
'The team is led by Sikka Regent, Yoseph Ansar Rera and the officials stayed overnight on Palue Island,' Frans told reporters in Kupang.
Mt. Rokatenda is located on Palue Island, some eight hours by boat from Maumere. Hot lava from Saturday's eruption is flowing through Woje Wubi village to Cua Beach.
