L

ess than 24 hours after Mount Kelud erupted, many evacuees from a number of villages in East Java decided to return home on Friday afternoon when they saw that the volcano'€™s activity had receded.

'€œI just need to go home for a while to check my house and feed my cows,'€ Hari Purwanto, 39, from Kali Bladak village, Blitar regency, said on Friday.

Before the volcano erupted on Thursday night, Hari and some 14,000 other residents from other subdistricts were evacuated from their homes to evacuation centers.

'€œI didn'€™t have the chance to take my livestock with me,'€ Hari said.

A similar view was expressed by Tukiman, 54, who said the eruption presented a threat to his livelihood.

'€œI don'€™t see why we have to stay longer at the evacuation center when we still have our livestock to feed. There is no guarantee that the government will pay us compensation if they die due to starvation,'€ he said.

Head of the Blitar regency Social Affairs Agency, Izul Marom, confirmed that some evacuees had returned to their respective villages.

'€œMaybe it'€™s because they feel the situation is safe enough for them to go home,'€ Izul said, adding that his office was still determining the total number of evacuees, as most of them had opted to return home without reporting to officials.

While many evacuees have decided to return home, Rukiyah, 34, chose to stay at a shelter since she had a baby. However, she complained about the lack of special spaces reserved for toddlers and the elderly. As a result, young children were forced to share the limited number of rooms with adult evacuees.

'€œI am also running out of milk for my baby because I did not have the chance to stock up when we evacuated. Neither do I have the money to buy milk for my baby,'€ Rukiyah said.

She added that the food provided in the evacuation center was only suitable for adults; as yet, no milk or baby food had been made available.

Separately, the Kediri Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) said it had evacuated people who lived within a 10-kilometer radius of the volcano.

BPBD spokesperson Andri said more than 66,000 people had been evacuated to 117 centers in safe locations. Evacuees came from the subdistricts of Ngancar, Kepung, Puncu and Plosoklaten.

Meanwhile, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) reported that three people had died and 76,388 others had been evacuated to 158 centers from hazard zones in Blitar, Kediri, Malang and Tulungagung regencies.

The three people who were killed were Malang residents who lived within 7 km from the volcano.

Separately, East Java Governor Soekarwo confirmed that the provincial administration had prepared evacuation posts in the three regencies of Blitar, Kediri and Malang, and that aid had been distributed to the posts.

He added that he had asked police and military personnel to ban people from entering areas within a radius of 10 km from Mt. Kelud.

'€œThis morning, the President has instructed the evacuation of people living within a 10-km radius [of the volcano]. What the evacuees need right now are staple foods, clean water and sanitary facilities,'€ Soekarwo said.