BEKASI, Indonesia — Assailants stabbed a Christian worshiper in the stomach and pounded a minister in the head with a wooden plank as they headed to morning prayers yesterday in this city 25 miles west of Jakarta.
Neither of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening.
No one claimed responsibility for the attacks. But suspicion immediately fell on Islamic hard-liners who have repeatedly warned members of Batak Christian Protestant Church against worshiping on a field housing their now-shuttered church.
This is REALLY GETTING OLD, folks.
In recent months, they have thrown shoes and water bottles at the church members, interrupted sermons with chants of “Infidels!’’ and “Leave now!,’’ and dumped piles of feces on the land....
You know, like an AmeriKan newspaper.
Indonesia, a secular country of 237 million people, has more Muslims than any other nation in the world. Though it has a long history of religious tolerance, a small extremist fringe has become more vocal in recent years.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who relies heavily on Islamic parties in Parliament, has been widely accused in the media of failing to crack down on hard-liners. He immediately called on authorities to investigate and to hold accountable those responsible for yesterday’s attack.
“We know who’s behind it,’’ said Major General Timur Pradopo, the police chief in Jakarta, “but I don’t believe this is an interreligous conflict.’’
Yeah, I'll bet they do!
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"Gunmen raid Indonesia police station; 3 officers killed; Shooting may be retaliation by militants" by Aubrey Belford, International Herald Tribune | September 23, 2010
JAKARTA — Heavily armed men shot and killed three Indonesian police officers early yesterday, just days after the police had raided what they said were Islamic militants linked to a series of violent bank robberies....
The police said those killed and captured in the raids were members of a group called Al Qaeda of the Veranda of Mecca, which is thought to have staged a series of robberies in North Sumatra that netted at least $78,000....
Here we go again!
And that is ALL they got? A lousy 78 grand?
What is it with the DUMMKOPF "terrorists" anyway?
The police said they believe the robberies were intended to raise money for the group, which had set up a training camp in the northern province of Aceh that police broke up earlier this year.
“What we saw before at the CIMB bank was connected with the training in Aceh,’’ said Inspector General Iskandar Hasan, the national police spokesman. “We can’t confirm it yet, but we suspect there is a pattern.’’
Indonesian police have arrested and killed scores of terrorism suspects since discovering the Aceh training camp, including Dulmatin, a regional militant leader who was shot and killed by the police in March.
Related: Using Indonesia to Push the Agenda
One of Indonesia’s top radical Islamic leaders, the elderly cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, was arrested in August for allegedly helping set up and finance the Aceh group. Police say the organization has planned attacks on targets including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, foreign embassies, luxury hotels, and national police headquarters.
See: Abu Bakar Bashir: Terrorist or CIA-Mossad Patsy?
The more one digs the more they find that THEY ALL ARE!
Indonesia’s police have largely been praised for curbing Islamist militancy in the Muslim-majority country, where attacks including the 2002 and 2005 nightclub bombings on Bali have killed more than 200 people, mostly foreigners. The last major attack was the suicide bombings of two hotels in Jakarta in July 2009, which killed seven. But analysts have warned that militant groups have proved highly adaptable, re-forming and changing tactics in response to successive crackdowns.
Yeah, amazing how those guys never go away.
The attack yesterday on the police, if proved to be the work of terrorists, indicates a shift from spectacular bombings of Western targets to more focused attacks on the Indonesian state itself, said Jim Della-Giacoma, the Southeast Asia director of the International Crisis Group.
What, was Indonesia straying in the war on terror.
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"Indonesian train accident kills dozens" by Associated Press | October 2, 2010
JAKARTA, Indonesia — A train crash in central Indonesia killed at least 43 people and injured dozens today, many of them critically, officials and witnesses said.
The toll was expected to rise with some bodies still trapped in the mangled wreckage.
The accident occurred at a station in Petarukan, a city on the northern coast of Central Java province, at about 3 a.m., as many passengers were sleeping, witnesses told TVOne....
Meanwhile, another passenger train crashed in the town of Solo at about 4 a.m., said Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan, adding that information about casualties was still being collected.
An official at a public hospital told Metro TV that one person had died in that crash.
Indonesia, with a reputation for poor safety standards and maintenance, has been hit by a series of plane, train, and ferry accidents in recent years that have left hundreds dead....
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"Indonesia braces for eruption of volcano" by Slamet Riyadi, Associated Press | October 26, 2010
MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia — Indonesia warned yesterday that its most volatile volcano could erupt at any time and started evacuating some of the thousands of villagers living on the mountain’s slope.
Mount Merapi has seen increased volcanic activity over the past week and officials have raised the alert level for the 9,737-foot-high mountain to the most urgent level, said government volcanologist Surono, who uses only one name.
Also yesterday, a powerful earthquake hit off western Indonesia, briefly triggering a tsunami warning that sent thousands of panicked residents fleeing to high ground. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The 7.7-magnitude temblor struck at a depth of 13 miles off Sumatra island, the US Geological Survey said.
Mount Merapi last erupted in 2006, when it sent an avalanche of blistering gases and rock fragments racing down the mountain that killed two people. A similar eruption in 1994 killed 60 people, and 1,300 people died in an eruption in 1930....
Sri Purnomo, the head of Sleman district on Java island where Mount Merapi is located, said camps to take in the evacuees were being set up at buildings and sports fields more than 6 miles away. Hundreds of senior citizens and children have been moved from villages near the slopes of Mount Merapi to Umbulharjo village, where they are being placed in government buildings and tents prepared by local officials
There are more than 129 active volcanoes to watch in Indonesia, which is spread across 17,500 islands and is prone to eruptions and earthquakes because of its location within the so-called “Ring of Fire,’’ a series of fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia.
When yesterday’s earthquake struck, at least five towns in the provinces of Bengkulu and West Sumatra were badly jolted, officials and witnesses said, as were the nearby Mentawai islands....
A 5.0-magnitude aftershock hit less than an hour after the original quake, and a 6.1-magnitude aftershock was recorded early this morning.
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"Dual disasters kill at least 138 in Indonesian islands; Tsunami hits as volcano erupts; scores missing" by Aubrey Belford, New York Times | October 27, 2010
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian authorities scrambled to deal with two deadly events yesterday after a tsunami and volcanic eruptions struck in separate regions of the vast archipelago.
Rescue workers and fishermen searched for survivors in waters west of Sumatra Island after a powerful earthquake and a resulting tsunami late Monday killed at least 113 people and left hundreds missing, officials said. Thousands more were homeless.
About 800 miles to the east, on the island of Java, thousands of villagers were fleeing multiple eruptions of Indonesia’s most volatile volcano, Mount Merapi, after it began spewing clouds of hot ash in the early evening yesterday. Twenty-five people have died, and at least 15 people were injured, some with severe burns.
Much of Indonesia lies in the seismically active Pacific “ring of fire,’’ a series of fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia. Specialists said that the quake was not big enough to have disturbed the volcano and that the two events were most likely not related.
The tsunami, set off by a 7.7-magnitude undersea quake, slammed into the southern part of the remote Mentawai Islands, wreaking havoc in villages and, the authorities believe, sweeping scores out to sea. The islands are a popular destination for foreign surfers, particularly Australians.
The surge reached up to 10 feet and advanced as far as 2,000 feet inland, officials at the Health Ministry’s crisis center said.
The earthquake occurred along the same fault that produced a 9.1-magnitude quake on Dec. 26, 2004, spawning a tsunami that killed an estimated 230,000 people around the Indian Ocean. The hardest-hit area was in Aceh Province in northern Sumatra.
That should take care of those terrorists and their training camps.
Monday’s quake was along a shorter section of the fault, about 500 miles southeast of the 2004 rupture, that last had a major quake in 1833, said Leonardo Seeber, a research scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in Palisades, N.Y.
David Walsh, an oceanographer at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, said that the center issued a “local tsunami watch’’ seven minutes after the earthquake occurred, but that a “destructive widespread threat’’ did not exist. The warning was canceled several hours later.
The scale of the destruction did not become clear until yesterday, as rescuers and local officials crossed a Sumatran strait to reach the islands. “So far, we’ve found 15 bodies at sea and a number of survivors,’’ said Ade Edward, the emergency head of West Sumatra Province’s Disaster Management Agency. Among the missing were eight Australian citizens and five Indonesian crew members aboard a tourist boat, he said.
A representative for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said there could have been up to 10 Australians on the boat, the Southern Cross.
At Mount Merapi, just one of 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, authorities had anticipated an eruption for days, preparing refuges and medical and disaster response teams as the mountain rumbled. In 1994, the volcano spewed an avalanche of blistering gases and rock fragments, killing 60 people; 1,300 people died in a 1930 eruption.
Yesterday, the pressure building up beneath a lava dome finally produced four explosions starting around 5 p.m. that sent smoke and debris high into the sky, said Priyadi Kardono, the spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency....
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"Indonesia left scrambling to respond to 2 catastrophes" by Aubrey Belford, New York Times | October 28, 2010
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia moved to count the costs and help survivors yesterday after a tsunami and volcanic eruptions struck separate parts of the country, killing at least 300 people and driving tens of thousands from their homes.
In the worst-hit region, the Mentawai Islands off western Sumatra, health and rescue workers managed to reach only some isolated areas nearly two days after a powerful magnitude 7.7 underwater quake sent a wave more than 10 feet high crashing into coastal villages.
Ade Edward, head of operations of the Disaster Management Agency in West Sumatra Province, said the tsunami had killed at least 272 people and left 412 missing. About 16,000 people were displaced, officials said.
At the same time, aid workers about 750 miles to the east, on Java, scrambled to provide water, food, and medicine to tens of thousands of people driven from their homes after eruptions of the Mount Merapi volcano killed at least 29, obliterated houses, and spread ash and debris over the densely populated countryside....
Stumps were all that remained of trees in an Indonesian village near the Mount Merapi volcano, which began erupting Tuesday. A tsunami hit the Mentawai islands late Monday. (Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)
Bad weather and powerful waves delayed efforts to reach many of the survivors in the Mentawais, Edward said.
“All along the coast, people have fled up into the hills because quakes are happening nearly on the hour,’’ he said....
Ships and helicopters had been sent to the impoverished islands, along with medical teams, shelters, medicine, and two electricity-generating barges, Edward said. Downed communications meant that radio was the only way to communicate with many areas, he said.
The two disasters, which struck within 24 hours of each other, prompted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to cut short a trip to Vietnam, where he was to attend a summit meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations today. Instead, he flew to Sumatra and was due to visit the Mentawais early today, a government statement said.
In Java, much of the day was consumed with counting the cost of Mount Merapi’s eruptions. Although the authorities had issued warnings, many people had delayed evacuating until late Tuesday.
Among those killed was an elderly man, popularly known as Mbah Maridjan, widely believed to have a supernatural connection with Mount Merapi. He did not leave, prompting others to stay. Fifteen people were killed with him when superheated gases and hot ash shot down into his village, destroying it.
“A lot of people there believed in Mbah Maridjan,’’ said Priyadi Kardono, a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency. “If Mbah Maridjan said leave, they’d leave. Mbah Maridjan didn’t leave — he probably thought nothing was wrong — so the others wouldn’t have wanted to leave either.
“No one, not even the president, could ask him to leave. Even though the government had ordered an evacuation, he wouldn’t listen.’’
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"Death toll rises in Indonesia disasters; Weather, terrain hinder delivery of relief supplies" by Aubrey Belford, New York Times | October 29, 2010
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian rescue workers struggled against rough weather and difficult terrain to reach tsunami victims yesterday as the death toll continued to rise from the natural disasters that hit the archipelago nation this week on two fronts and just 24 hours apart.
In the remote Mentawai Islands west of Sumatra, aid workers said the isolation of many villages as well as choppy seas meant that some victims had yet to receive assistance three days after a magnitude 7.7 underwater quake sent a 10-foot-tall tsunami crashing onto land, smashing apart homes and killing hundreds.
As a steady trickle of supplies reached the islands with the help of military ships and aircraft, officials raised the toll to 343 confirmed dead and 338 missing. An estimated 16,000 people have been displaced, officials said.
At the same time, a new eruption last evening at Mount Merapi on the island of Java, about 750 miles to the east, stirred fears of further destruction. Powerful eruptions late Tuesday killed 34 people and destroyed villages in clouds of superheated gas and debris, said Nelis Zuliasri, a spokeswoman for the National Disaster Management Agency.
Nearly 40,000 villagers who had fled plumes of hot ash were being asked to stay in temporary shelters while seismologists tried to determine whether the fresh eruptions meant that further destruction was on the way. There had been no reports of anyone hurt in the latest eruption, Zuliasri said.
In the Mentawai Islands, which are among the most underdeveloped areas of Indonesia, aid workers said assistance was still only trickling in to many hard-hit but hard-to-reach islands.
“We’re still just trying to fulfill the basic needs — food, tents, blankets, things like that,’’ Zuliasri said. “We’ve sent medicine out there, and we’re now using Hercules aircraft and ships.’’
“Based on reports from this afternoon, there are some villages that we haven’t been able to get assistance to,’’ she said.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono flew by helicopter to the Mentawais to inspect the aid effort. He had cut short a visit to Vietnam and skipped a summit meeting of Southeast Asian leaders that began yesterday.
Anggraeni Puspitasari, a local aid coordinator for the charity World Vision, said poor weather was causing transport bottlenecks and slowing aid and that the danger of disease was rising.
“The local government has provided two speedboats, but yesterday we were only able to get one out there,’’ she said from the West Sumatran capital city, Padang. “Today, only one could go as well. It’s because the weather is still unstable.’’
Hundreds of people, including politicians, attended the funeral of Penewu Suraksohargo, popularly known as Mbah Maridjan, who was long honored for what was believed to be a supernatural connection with Mount Merapi. He did not leave his village when the evacuation was ordered. Some Indonesian newspapers have reported that he felt he had to stay to use his powers to keep the damage to a minimum.
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"Aid workers battle storms to help victims of tsunami" by Kristen Gelineau, Associated Press | October 30, 2010
MENTAWAI ISLANDS, Indonesia — A group of private aid workers battled fierce swells and driving rain that kept most craft on shore yesterday, managing to deliver food and other supplies to desperate survivors on the islands hardest hit by a tsunami that killed more than 400 people.
Government agencies pulled back boats and helicopters that had been ferrying aid to the most distant corners of the Mentawai islands and instead resorted to air-dropping boxes of aid from planes.
On a borrowed 75-foot cruiser, aid workers faced rough seas, sheets of rain, and miserable seasickness to bring noodles, sardines, and sleeping mats to villages that have not received any help since Monday’s earthquake.
In one village, most people were still huddling in a church in the hills, too afraid to come down even to get the aid.
Dozens of injured survivors of the tsunami, meanwhile, languished at an overwhelmed hospital yesterday....
The death toll from the earthquake and the tsunami it spawned rose to 408 yesterday as officials found more bodies, and 303 people were still missing and feared swept out to sea, said Agus Prayitno of the West Sumatra provincial disaster management center.
Officials say 13,000 survivors on the islands are homeless. Many were sorely in need of help, which the government was struggling to deliver.
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"Volcano erupts once again; Storms also delay recovery efforts after tsunami" by Slamet Riyadi, Associated Press | October 31, 2010
MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia — Clouds of gray ash rumbled down the slopes of Indonesia’s most volatile volcano yesterday in its most powerful eruption of a deadly week, prompting soldiers to force reluctant villagers to evacuate amid fears of a larger blast.
On the other side of the archipelago, storms again prevented aid deliveries to increasingly desperate survivors of a tsunami — including a teenage girl with an open chest wound — that killed 413 people in the Mentawai islands. Relief workers found some comfort, however, when the number of missing dropped by half to 163 as searchers discovered more survivors and as many villagers who had fled to the hills returned home.
The simultaneous catastrophes have severely tested the emergency response network. Indonesia lies in the Pacific Ring of Fire, a cluster of fault lines prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity.
Mount Merapi, which sprang back to life early last week, unleashed a terrifying 21-minute eruption early yesterday, followed by more than 350 volcanic tremors and 33 ash bursts, according to the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation....
Government camps well away from the base were overflowing with refugees, including most of the 11,000 people who live on the mountain’s fertile slopes. They were told yesterday, with signs the danger level was climbing, that they should expect to stay for three more weeks.
Despite such warnings, many people have returned to their land to check on crops and livestock. The new eruption triggered a chaotic predawn exit, killing a 44-year-old woman who was fleeing by motorcycle, said the disaster management office in the city of Yogyakarta.
For the first time yesterday, more than 2,000 troops were called in to help keep villagers clear of the mountain. Camouflaged soldiers stood guard in front of ash-covered homes and local television showed one woman who refused evacuation orders being carried away as she screamed in protest.
Still, the villagers may be allowed to go back for a few hours a day if the volcano appears to be calm, said Djarot Nugroho, head of the Central Java disaster management agency, adding that they must return to the camps immediately if a new alarm is raised.
“Once the sirens go off, no excuse, everyone has to get back to the camps,’’ he said.
The eruption temporarily forced closure of the airport in Yogyakarta, 12 miles south of the volcano, because of poor visibility and heavy ash on the south of the runway, said , an airport official.
Despite earlier hopes that Merapi’s activity might be waning, scientists warned yesterday the worst may be yet to come.
High-pressure gas appeared to be building up behind a newly formed thick magna dome in the crater, increasing the potential for a more explosive eruption
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"Indonesian volcano erupts again, prompting returnees to flee" by Associated Press | November 1, 2010
MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia — Thousands of evacuees who risked a trip home near a deadly Indonesian volcano fled in panic as the mountain spewed more searing ash clouds yesterday, while rescuers finally resumed aid to tsunami victims in the country’s other unfolding disaster.
The number of people killed in the twin catastrophes climbed to almost 500 yesterday, as dozens more bodies were found in the tsunami-ravaged Mentawai islands.
Indonesia, a vast island nation of 235 million people, is prone to earthquakes and eruptions because it straddles a series of fault lines and volcanoes known as the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Warning sirens blared and people sprinted down the slopes of Mount Merapi or sped off in cars and trucks, while others who had returned amid a brief lull to check on their livestock jumped into rivers hoping to protect themselves when the volcano erupted, local disaster officials said.
No new casualties were immediately reported in the latest blast, which sent massive clouds of ash down the less-populated southern and eastern slopes. The volcano has killed at least 38 people since it began erupting Tuesday.
Authorities have been frustrated that many of the 53,000 people evacuated since the eruptions began keep going back during the daylight hours, ignoring warnings of the danger.
More than 2,000 troops had to be called in Saturday to force men, women, and children to leave.
Residents of the once-fertile slopes of Merapi say they’re just trying to salvage something of their lives....
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"As Indonesia reels, volcano erupts again; 21 more rumble; monitoring teams raise alert levels" by Slamet Riyadi, Associated Press | November 2, 2010
MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia — Deafening explosions of hot gas rattled evacuees miles from an Indonesian volcano yesterday, the latest eruption in a deadly week. The country reported increased rumblings at 21 other active volcanoes, raising questions about what’s causing the uptick along some of the world’s most volatile fault lines.
No casualties were reported in Mount Merapi’s new blast, which occurred as Indonesia struggles to respond to an earthquake-generated tsunami that devastated a remote chain of islands.
The two disasters unfolding on opposite ends of the country have killed nearly 500 people and strained the government’s emergency response network. In both events, the military has been called in to help.
Merapi has killed 38 people since it started erupting a week ago. Monitoring officials have also raised alert levels at some of the 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, with two under watch for possible eruption within two weeks and 19 showing increased activity — more than double the usual number on the watch list, an official said.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 235 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanoes because it sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,’’ a horseshoe-shaped string of faults that lines the western and eastern Pacific.
Scientists could not say for certain what was causing the increased volcanic activity, though two theorized that the earth’s tectonic plates could be realigning and one noted growing evidence that volcanoes can affect one other.
About 69,000 villagers have been evacuated from the area around Merapi’s once-fertile slopes — now blanketed by gray ash — in central Java, 250 miles east of Jakarta, the capital.
Booming explosions sounded during yesterday’s eruption, which shot massive clouds from the glowing cauldron and sent ash cascading nearly 4 miles down the southeastern slopes, said an official in charge of monitoring Merapi’s activity.
Mount Merapi, which started erupting a week ago, spewed volcanic smoke yesterday. (Irwin Fedriansyah/ Associated Press)
That is an amazing photograph.
Even in the crowded government camps, miles away from the mountain, the sound of the explosions sent evacuees scurrying for shelter.
More than 800 miles to the west, meanwhile, a C-130 transport plane, six helicopters, and four motorized boats were ferrying aid to the most distant corners of the Mentawai Islands, where last week’s tsunami destroyed hundreds of homes, schools, churches, and mosques.
All of a sudden all the religious squabbling seems trivial.
The tsunami death toll stood at 431 yesterday, the National Disaster Management Agency said on its website.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said relief efforts must be sped up, expressing dismay that it took days for aid to reach the isolated islands, but acknowledged that violent storms were largely to blame.
Last week’s killer wave was triggered by a 7.7-magnitude earthquake along the same fault that caused the 2004 temblor and tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries. The fault line, which runs the length of the west coast of Sumatra island, is the meeting point of two of the earth’s dozen major plates, which have been pushing against and under one another for millions of years, causing huge stresses to build up.
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"Ferocious new blasts from Indonesian volcano trigger more evacuations" by Associated Press | November 4, 2010
MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia — Indonesia’s deadly volcano sent a burst of searing gas high into the air today, hours after its most explosive eruption in a deadly week triggered an exodus from villages and emergency shelters along its rumbling slopes.
After days of continual explosions, and warnings that pressure inside Mount Merapi may still be building, the province warned it was running out of money to help more than 70,000 people forced from their homes.
Soldiers loaded women and crying children into trucks while rocks and debris rained from the sky late yesterday afternoon. Several abandoned mountainside homes were set ablaze and the carcasses of incinerated cattle littered the scorched flanks.
No new casualties were reported....
Surono, a state volcanologist, said yesterday’s intensified blast had triple the force of the first eruption on Oct. 26.
The follow-up before dawn today was strong as well, sending rocks cascading down the western slopes.
“We have no idea what’s happening. It looks like we may be entering an even worse stage now,’’ Surono said.
Djarot Nugroho, the head of Central Java’s disaster management agency, said money to buy instant noodles, clean water, medicine and other supplies would run out within five days unless the Indonesian government declares a national disaster, bringing in federal funds.
Yesterday’s eruption, which occurred during a downpour, raised Merapi to crisis status, said a staffer in the presidential office dealing with the disaster.
All that ash turned to mud!
A 6.0-magnitude quake hit waters off the eastern province of Papua last night, rattling villages.
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Related: Death toll from Indonesia volcano hits 92
Didn't make my printed paper so I missed it.
The censorship and s*** paper is beginning to get old, Globe.
"Villages smolder, death toll rises as volcano continues to erupt" by Sarah DiLorenzo, Associated Press | November 6, 2010
MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia — A surge of searing gas raced down the sides of Mount Merapi yesterday, smothering houses, cattle, and villagers in its path. The death toll after the volcano’s largest eruption in a century soared to 122.
A dead farm animal lay next to a burned-out car yesterday in the ash-covered village of Argomulyo, Indonesia. The eruption released 1,765 million cubic feet of volcanic material. (Clara Prima/AFP/Getty Images)
That is a haunting photograph.
The worst-hit village of Bronggang lay 9 miles from the fiery crater, just on the perimeter of the government-delineated “danger zone.’’ Crumpled roofs, charred carcasses of cattle, and broken chairs, all layered in white ash and soot, dotted the smoldering landscape.
The zone has since been expanded to a ring 12 miles from the peak, bringing it to the edge of the ancient royal capital of Yogyakarta, which has been put on its highest alert.
Sri Sucirathasri said her family had stayed in their Bronggang home Thursday night because they hadn’t been told to leave.
They awoke in the dark as the mountain let out thunderous claps and tried desperately to outrun the flows — which reached speeds of 60 miles per hour — on a motorbike. Her mother, father, and 12-year-old sister, Prisca, left first, but with gray ash blocking out any light, they mistakenly drove into — rather than away from — the volcano’s dangerous discharge.
The 18-year-old Sri went looking for them when she heard her mother’s screams, leaving behind an older sister, who died when their house became engulfed in flames.
“It was a safe place. There were no signs to evacuate,’’ said Sri, a vacant gaze fixed on Prisca, whose neck and face are burned a shiny ebony, her features nearly melted away.
What a terrifying experience!
Their mother is still missing. Their father, whose feet and ankles are burned, is being treated in another ward. Merapi’s latest round of eruptions began Oct. 26, followed by more than a dozen other powerful blasts and thousands of tremors.
With each new eruption, scientists and officials have pushed the villagers who live along Merapi’s fertile slopes farther from the crater. But after initially predicting earlier eruptions would ease pressure under the magma dome, specialists who spent a lifetime studying the volcano say the don’t know what to expect....
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