Just days after Indonesian officials told residents near Mount Sinabung was beginning to weaken in volcanic activity, a major eruption has left at least 15 people dead.
Fourteen of the dead are people who were on the side of the mountain when it erupted and died when a rush of hot gas burned them alive. At least four of the dead are high school students who went to the mountain on a field trip with their teacher who also died.
Witnesses say ash at least a foot thick has blanketed miles around the mountain and that rescuers have said it’s unlikely that anyone will be found alive. Sukameriah village, about two miles from the volcano crater, has been wiped from the face of the Earth.
“There’s no signs of human life,” a witness told AFP News Agency. “All the crops were gone. Many houses were damaged and those still standing were covered in thick white ash. It was hard to walk in ash that nearly reached my calves.”
Rescue efforts have been suspended at the recommendation of volcanologists. Searchers at the site had reported volcanic tremors and thick smog.
Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung burst open nine times on Monday, including one that shot hot lava almost four miles into the sky.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency said that smoke and ash continue to bellow from the mountain and that lava flows have been seen winding down the mountain’s sides.
Government officials have declared a three-mile exclusion zone around the mountain forcing over 20,000 people to leave the area.
Volcanologists say the mountain had been building a lava dome since late November while it continued to spit out ash that devastated the crops of local farmers. The lava flows over the last two days have significantly lowered the level of the dome and it is expected to collapse in the next few days.
One of the country’s government volcanologists told UPI that they believe the volcano is reaching the end of its activity.
Indonesian officials are scrambling to evacuate residents still surrounding Mount Sinabung as eruptions continue to grow stronger throughout the day.
The eruptions send lava and searing hot gases rushing a mile down the mountain’s slopes and shot volcanic rock at much as 6,500 feet into the air. Authorities have raised the warning level for the mountain to its highest level and warned aircraft to avoid the area.
Officials say at least 15,000 people have now been taken out of a zone three miles wide around the entire mountain.
A local farmer who fled the exclusion zone with his family said that hot ash and gravel began to rain down on his village in the early morning hours.
The eruptions are having a devastating impact on farming in the area. Farmers as far as 45 miles from the volcano’s crater are reporting hot ash falling and coating their crops.
Two volcanoes in Indonesia have erupted sending thousands fleeing and destroying entire crops.
Mount Sinabung first erupted Thursday in the early morning hours sending a plume of ash 23,000 feet into the air in the Karo region of North Sumatra. The mountain then erupted again just before noon with an ash plume that rose 16,400 feet.
Government officials rushed at least 5,500 residents away from the area.
Then today Mount Sinabung was the second Indonesia volcano to erupt in a span of hours. Mount Merapi exploded just before 5 a.m. local time send a plume of ash 6500 feet into the air. Hours later, Mount Sinabung erupted stronger than ever with an ash cloud rising 26,500 feet into the air.
The Indonesian Transportation Ministry has issued a statement to all airlines telling them to avoid the airspace surrounding the volcanoes because of the ash and their current instability.
The ash from the volcanoes has destroyed the crops of farmers surrounding the mountain who depend on their crops to live. A local farmer told the Jakarta Globe the losses to farmers in the region could end up in the billions. He said some of the farm land has been so damaged by the volcanoes they can no longer be used for farming.
Indonesia is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire.
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