MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia — The tiny hospital at the foot of Indonesia's most volatile volcano is struggling to cope with victims brought in after the mountain's most powerful eruption in a decade. Some have clothes, blankets and even mattresses fused to their skin.
With few beds and the only burn unit in town, doctors are forced to turn some people away.
The worst hit village of Bronggang lay nine 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. Poor visibility from dust showers forced closed the city's airport for a second day Friday.
Officials say the biggest threat to residents is the Code River, which flows from the 9,700-foot mountain into the heart of the city of 400,000 and could act as conduit for deadly volcanic mudflows that can race at speeds of 60 mph.
The river is already clogged with cold lava, mud, rocks and other debris.
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 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 at home an older sister, who died when the house was engulfed in flames.
"I don't know what to say," she whispered when asked if she blamed officials for not warning the family. "Angry at who? I'm just sad. And very sick."
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 steadily 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, experts who have spent a lifetime studying the volcano now say the don't know what to expect.
Scientists can study the patterns of volcanoes, but their eruptions are essentially unpredictable, as Merapi's increasingly intense blasts have shown.
Towering plumes of ash rained dust on windshields of cars 300 miles away Friday, although rain near the mountain in the afternoon turned much of it to sludge. Bursts of hot clouds occasionally interrupted aid efforts, with rescuers screaming, "Watch out! Hot cloud!"
The latest eruption released 1,765 million cubic feet of volcanic material, making it "the biggest in at least a century," state volcanologist Gede Swantika said as plumes of smoke continued to shoot up more than 30,000 feet.
Soldiers pulled at least 78 bodies from homes and streets blanketed by ash up to a foot deep, raising the overall toll to 122, according to the National Disaster Management Agency.
With bodies found in front of houses and in streets, it appeared that many of the villagers died from the blistering gas while trying to escape, said Col. Tjiptono, a deputy police chief.
With few beds and the only burn unit in town, doctors are forced to turn some people away.
A surge of searing gas raced down the sides of Mount Merapi on Friday, smothering entire villages as it killed or seriously burned those caught in its path. The death toll after the volcano's largest eruption in a century soared to 122.
The worst hit village of Bronggang lay nine 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. Poor visibility from dust showers forced closed the city's airport for a second day Friday.
Officials say the biggest threat to residents is the Code River, which flows from the 9,700-foot mountain into the heart of the city of 400,000 and could act as conduit for deadly volcanic mudflows that can race at speeds of 60 mph.
The river is already clogged with cold lava, mud, rocks and other debris.
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 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 at home an older sister, who died when the house was engulfed in flames.
"I don't know what to say," she whispered when asked if she blamed officials for not warning the family. "Angry at who? I'm just sad. And very sick."
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 steadily 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, experts who have spent a lifetime studying the volcano now say the don't know what to expect.
Scientists can study the patterns of volcanoes, but their eruptions are essentially unpredictable, as Merapi's increasingly intense blasts have shown.
Towering plumes of ash rained dust on windshields of cars 300 miles away Friday, although rain near the mountain in the afternoon turned much of it to sludge. Bursts of hot clouds occasionally interrupted aid efforts, with rescuers screaming, "Watch out! Hot cloud!"
The latest eruption released 1,765 million cubic feet of volcanic material, making it "the biggest in at least a century," state volcanologist Gede Swantika said as plumes of smoke continued to shoot up more than 30,000 feet.
Soldiers pulled at least 78 bodies from homes and streets blanketed by ash up to a foot deep, raising the overall toll to 122, according to the National Disaster Management Agency.
With bodies found in front of houses and in streets, it appeared that many of the villagers died from the blistering gas while trying to escape, said Col. Tjiptono, a deputy police chief.
It is really unfortuanate that the eruption of volcanoes cannot be predicted as this could save hundreds of lives. The sad part is that as many areas of Indonesia are considered LDC's there is far less in the relm of hospitals and clinincs that can take in patients with such injuries. The article noted how people are being turned away because there is not longer any room and that mattresses and linens are sticking to the wounds of people. It is unfortunate that more aid cannot be provided to these people.
ReplyDelete