T

he ongoing eruptions of Mount Sinabung in Karo regency, North Sumatra, and Mount Raung in East Java over the past weeks have caused a considerable amount of material and non-material damage, as they have severely disrupted the activities of locals and residents of neighboring regions.

On Thursday, volcanic ash from Mt. Sinabung blanketed the city of Berastagi, a popular tourist destination located 30 kilometers from the mountain and the regency'€™s capital city of Kabanjahe.

Kabanjahe resident Sentosa Tarigan said the volcanic ash had covered the city over the past couple of days. Many residents, he said, stayed indoors on health concerns.

'€œMany people are reluctant to carry out outdoor activities because they are afraid that the thick ash, which has been blanketing the city, will make them sick,'€ Sentosa told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

The thick ash has also contributed to a decline in transactions at the Berastagi fruit market. Only a few customers were seen shopping in the market on Thursday.

Vendors in the market said turnover had dropped ever since the volcanic ash from Mt. Sinabung hit the city. '€œWe hope the Karo regency administration can clean up the ash affecting market activities,'€ fruit trader Sembiring said.

Since an eruption in September 2013, Mt. Sinabung has not stopped activity. Thousands of residents moved away at that time, only returning home last month after the volcano showed decreased activity. The eruptions have resulted in the deaths of at least 17 people and destroyed thousands of houses and hectares of farmland.

Mt. Sinabung Observation Station officer Windi Cahya said the Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Center (PVMBG) had kept the volcano'€™s alert status at the highest level due to its intensive volcanic activity. Windi also said that the volcano was still holding 3 million cubic meters of lava.

Meanwhile, in Denpasar, Bali, the ongoing eruption of Mt. Raung in the neighboring province of East Java on Thursday forced the operator of Ngurah Rai International Airport to halt the airport'€™s operations for three-and-a-half hours, resulting in the delay of dozens of flights in and out of the resort island.

The airport was closed from noon until 3:30 p.m. local time. The period of the closure, however, was shorter than that planned earlier by local authorities.

'€œInitially we planned to close the airport until 6 p.m. but wind direction changed and the volcanic ash is gone, so we reopened the airport at 3:30 p.m.,'€ state-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura I (AP I) general manager Trikora Harjo said.

The decision to close the airport, Trikora said, had been made in a joint meeting attended by representatives from the airport authority, the air navigation authority and the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).

The ongoing eruption of Mt. Raung has disrupted flights in and out of Bali since last month.

On Tuesday, Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said that the tourist sector in Bali had suffered losses of at least US$40 million in potential income over the past few weeks following a series of airport closures because of the ongoing eruption of Mt. Raung.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesperson Purwo Nugroho said out of the 127 active volcanoes in Indonesia, three of them '€” Sinabung, Raung and Gamalama in North Maluku '€” were erupting at different alert levels. Experts and authorities, however, are not able to say when activity at the three volcanoes will calm.