
41 dead, many missing in ‘cold lava’ in Indonesia
Last Updated on May 14, 2024 8:40 am
At least 41 people have been killed by cold lava flows from a volcano in Indonesia’s West Sumatra province. 17 more people are still missing in this incident.
An official of the local disaster agency told news agency AFP on Monday.
West Sumatra Disaster Mitigation Agency official Ilham Wahab told AFP, “As of last night, we have confirmed the death of 37 people.” However, this number has increased to 41 people till this morning.
Rescuers said 17 people are still missing. Their rescue is underway. Among the missing are three in Agam district and 14 in Tanah Datar. Hundreds of thousands of people live in these two areas, the most affected by floods.
Ilham Wahab could not give the exact information about how many people have been evacuated so far. He said, at the moment we are giving more importance to search, rescue, protection of evacuees and search operations.
Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency said by Sunday evening, rescue workers had found 19 bodies in Changduang, the worst-hit village in Agam district. They recovered 9 more bodies from neighboring district Tana Detar.
Sumatra’s most active volcano, Marapi, was followed by a torrent of volcanic ash and rocks after several hours of heavy rain on Saturday. These mudflows inundated two districts and damaged hundreds of houses, mosques and government buildings and killed people.
Survivors described how they escaped the ‘cold lava’ that rushed towards their homes. ‘Cooled lava’ is a mixture of volcanic material and pebbles that comes down the slopes of a volcano with rainwater.
Rina Devina (43), a housewife in Agam district, said, “I hear sounds like thunder and boiling water. These were the sounds of huge rocks falling from Marapi Mountain. They were all pitch black, so I used my mobile phone as a torch. The roads were all muddy. I kept repeating God’s name.
This mother of three children said that their neighbor’s house was buried under a large rock and collapsed. Four of his neighbors died.
‘Cool lava’ is used as a translation of the Indonesian and Tagalog word ‘lahar’. According to several research reports, ‘lahar’ or ‘cool lava’ forms between zero and 100 degrees Celsius, but these temperatures are usually below 50 degrees Celsius.
A moving lahar stream is much like a ‘flow of thin concrete’, increasing in size and volume as it combines with other debris along the way, according to the US Geological Survey.
Environmental experts have said that various types of natural disasters are partly due to human activities. According to them, such disasters are increasing as a result of deforestation and destruction of mountains and hills in search of natural resources and haphazard development projects.
Several similar natural disasters have occurred around Mount Marapi in the past six months.
Sources: AFP, BBC