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Year ender: Endless eruptions by North Sumatra's Mt. Sinabung
Jump for humanity: Officers from a joint relief team get out of a truck during an evacuation effort in Suka Meriah village, Karo regency, North Sumatra
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span class="inline inline-center">Jump for humanity: Officers from a joint relief team get out of a truck during an evacuation effort in Suka Meriah village, Karo regency, North Sumatra. The village is among the locales hard hit by the eruptions of Mount Sinabung. JP/Apriadi Gunawan
August 29, 2010, was the beginning of a new chapter in the long history of eruptions by Mount Sinabung in Karo regency, North Sumatra.
The date marked the first recent eruption of the 2,460-meter volcano since the previous one in 1600. It took place at 12:15 a.m. local time and sent out searing lava and volcanic material.
Over 12,000 people living around Mt. Sinabung were evacuated to eight evacuation centers as the volcanic ash quickly spread to as far away as Medan city, some 80 kilometers east of the volcano. The highest volcano in North Sumatra quietened in September 2010, but its rumbling intensified three years later.
The first eruption in 2013 occurred on Sept. 15, the second and third ones followed two days later. On Sept. 18, Mt. Sinabung erupted four times.
These were unpredicted eruptions as no intensifying volcanic activity had been detected. As a result, thousands of evacuees who had returned home were forced to re-evacuate as thick volcanic ash covered their villages.
On Sept. 29, 2013, Mt. Sinabung's volcanic activity subsided and its alert status was decreased to caution, the third of four alert levels, the next lowest being normal.
The volcano showed increasing activity again in November 2013, prompting the authorities to raise the alert status one level. People living within a 5-km radius of the volcano were re-evacuated.
Eruptions repeatedly occurred from Nov. 20'24 last year, prompting the authorities to increase Mt. Sinabung's alert status to the highest level, danger, and to evacuate residents from 21 subdistricts around the volcano.
The highest alert status was maintained until January this year, as Mt. Sinabung continued spewing pyroclastic flows and searing lava until Jan. 3. The activity intensified on Jan. 4 until the following day, forcing the authorities to evacuate more people, increasing the total number of evacuees to over 20,000 people.
Mt. Sinabung stabilized in the last week of January 2014. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) planned to send home 13,828 evacuees whose houses were located outside the 5-km radius.
At that time, according to data at Karo regency administration, there were a total of 30,117 evacuees, or 9,388 families. Of these, 1,244 were babies. They were accommodated in 42 evacuation centers.
Unfortunately, just one day after the government announced its plan to send the evacuees home, Mt. Sinabung spewed a pyroclastic flow of 600 degrees Celsius from its crater at a speed of 150 km per hour, killing 15 people.
Most of the victims were students and people from outside Karo regency who had come to see the volcano, which was showing decreasing volcanic activity.
The government decided to cancel sending home evacuees until three months later. As of December 2014, the remaining evacuees living in evacuation centers totaled 2,433. They were residents of Sigarang-garang and Sukanalu subdistricts.
The evacuees who were allowed home went on the recommendation of the Volcanology and Geology Disaster Mitigation Center (PVMBG), which had decreased Mt. Sinabung's alert status from danger to alert, the second-highest level.
This status continues to the present day, although the volcano has several times shown increased volcanic activity.
The eruptions have badly hit Karo regency's agriculture and tourism.
The regency's agricultural agency reported that the eruptions had destroyed over 10,000 hectares of agricultural produce in the region, decreasing potential agricultural production by up to 30 percent.
In the tourism sector, similarly, the number of tourist visits to the regency was reported to have decreased by up to 60 percent.
The PVBMG has said that Mt. Sinabung would continue to erupt as the volcano still showed intense volcanic activity.
Mt. Sinabung observation officer Arif Cahyo said there was still a high volume of magma in Mt. Sinabung.
He said Mt. Sinabung would continue erupting for a long time to come, but could not say for sure until when.
' JP/Apriadi Gunawan
