Indonesia’s mountain Lewotobi Laki Laki continues to unleash a towering column of hot clouds

MAUMERE, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki volcano continued to spew towering columns of hot ash high into the air Friday after the massive eruption that killed nine people and injured dozens of others.

Activity at the volcano on the remote island of Flores, East Nusa Tenggara province, has increased since Monday’s first eruption, forcing authorities to expand the danger zone on Thursday.

The latest activity saw the largest ash column recorded to date at a height of 10 kilometers, Hadi Wijaya, head of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Management, told a news conference.

Wijaya said volcanic material, including smoldering rocks, lava and hot, thumb-sized fragments of gravel and ash, were thrown up to 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the crater on Friday.

No casualties have been reported in the latest eruption.

The volcano monitoring agency has raised the alert status of Lewotobi Laki Laki to the highest level.

Wijaya said authorities on Thursday expanded the danger zone to an 8-kilometer radius to the northwest and southwest of the mountainside, as hot ash clouds are “currently spreading in all directions.”

“We are still evaluating how far the (danger zone) radius should be expanded,” he said.

The volcanic activity has damaged schools and thousands of homes and buildings, including monasteries, churches and a seminary on the predominantly Catholic island.

Experts on site have found craters of rocks that fell from the eruptions up to 13 meters wide and 5 meters deep.

Authorities have warned the thousands of people who fled the area not to return home as the government planned to evacuate around 16,000 residents from the danger zone.

This week’s series of eruptions have already affected more than 10,000 people in 10 villages, with more than half moved into makeshift emergency shelters.

A total of 2,384 houses and public facilities were damaged and collapsed after tons of volcanic material hit buildings and destroyed a main road connecting the East Flores district, where the mountain is located, with the neighboring Larantuka district, said Kanesius Didimus, head of a local agency for disaster management. .

Rescue workers, police and soldiers continued to search the devastated areas on Friday to ensure all residents had been moved out of harm’s way, while logistics and relief supplies were delivered to nearly 6,000 displaced people at three evacuation sites.

The National Disaster Management Agency has said residents of the worst-affected villages will be relocated within six months, with each family waiting to be resettled receiving compensation of 500,000 rupiah ($32) per month.

About 6,500 people were evacuated in January after Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki began erupting, creating thick clouds and forcing the government to close the island’s Fransiskus Xaverius Seda airport. No casualties or major damage have been reported, but the airport has remained closed due to seismic activity.

Three other airports in the neighboring districts of Ende, Larantuka and Bajawa have been closed since Monday after Indonesian air navigation issued a safety warning due to volcanic ash.

Lewotobi Laki Laki is one of a pair of stratovolcanoes in the East Flores district of East Nusa Tenggara province, known locally as the Man and Woman Mountains. ‘Laki laki’ means man, while his partner is Lewotobi Perempuan, or woman.

The 1,584 meter high volcano is one of 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, an archipelago with 280 million inhabitants. The country is prone to earthquakes, landslides and volcanic activity because it lies along the ‘Ring of Fire’, a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.

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