MAUMERE, Indonesia — Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency says at least 10 people have died as a series of volcanic eruptions intensified on the remote island of Flores.
Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki’s midnight eruption spewed ash as thick as 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) into the air and hot ash engulfed many villages, burning houses including Catholic monasteries, said Firman Yosef, an official in the area. Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki lookout post.
He said the volcanic material was thrown up to 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from its crater, blanketing nearby towns and villages with tons of volcanic debris and forcing residents to flee.
The rescuers were still searching for other bodies buried under the collapsed houses, said Abdul Muhari, spokesperson for the National Disaster Management Agency. Muhari said all the bodies, including the child, were found within a 4-kilometer (2.4 miles) radius of the crater.
He said at least 10,000 people have been affected by the eruption of villages in six villages in Wulanggitang District, and four villages in Ile Bura District. Some fled to relatives’ houses while the local government was studying schools to be used as temporary housing.
The country’s volcano monitoring center raised the volcano’s alert level to the highest level and doubled the exclusion zone to a 7-kilometer (4.3-mile) zone at midnight on Monday as the eruption intensified.
A monk from Hokeng village died and another disappeared, said Agusta Palma, head of the Saint Gabriel Foundation that oversees monasteries on the predominantly Catholic island.
“Our monks came out in shock because of the rain of volcanic ash in the dark,” said Palma.
Photos and videos shared on social media showed tons of volcanic debris covering houses up to their roofs in villages like Hokeng, where hot volcanic material is burning houses.
Lewotobi Laki-laki is one of the hot volcanoes in East Flores region of East Nusa Tenggara province known locally as husband – “Laki-laki” means husband – and wife mountains. Its counterpart is Lewotobi Perempuan, or woman.
About 6,500 people were evacuated in January after Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki erupted, spewing black clouds and forcing the government to close Frans Seda Airport. No injuries or major damage were reported, but the airport has been closed since then due to earthquake activity.
In a video conference on Monday, Muhammad Wafid, the head of the Geology Agency at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources said that there is a different shape between the January eruption and Monday’s eruption due to the blocking of magma in the crater, which reduced the seismic activity of the season. build pressure.
“The explosions that have occurred since Friday were caused by the gathering of hidden forces,” said Wafid.
It is the second volcanic eruption in Indonesia in as many weeks. West Sumatra’s Mount Marapi, one of the country’s most active volcanoes, erupted on October 27, spewing thick ash at least three times and blanketing nearby villages with debris, but no casualties.
Lewotobi Laki-laki is one of 120 volcanoes in Indonesia, an archipelago of 280 million people. The country is prone to earthquakes, landslides and volcanic activity because it sits along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean. _____
Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta contributed to this report.
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