Tuesday, 26 September 2017

INDONESIA: Is Bali Safe For Tourists? Mount Agung Volcano Expected To Erupt Any Time

Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency has urged tourists to continue visiting Bali, saying the resort island is safe except for the area around Mount Agung, a volcano in eastern Indonesia that could erupt at any time.

Three hundred tremors were recorded in the vicinity of the volcano between midnight and 6am on Sunday and white smoke was detected 200 metres above the crater.

National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho​ tweeted that as of Sunday morning the volcano had not erupted and there was no volcanic ash.

A radius of nine kilometres and 12 kilometres around the mountain was considered dangerous but the resort island was otherwise safe.

Mount Agung is 71 kilometres from the tourist hot spot of Kuta.

Flights in and out of Bali's international airport remain normal with 50,000 to 60,000 travellers in and out of the island every day says Ngurah Rai airport general manager Yanus Suprayogi.

Aviation will only be affected if volcanic ash is present with none detected as of Sunday morning local time.

The director general of air transport, Agus Santoso said even if the volcano erupted with lava it would not affect aviation unless there was also volcanic ash.

Nine alternative airports outside of Bali had been prepared for diverted flights if volcanic ash was detected.

Mr Santoso said 300 buses would be available to transport affected travellers to ferry ports and bus stations so they could leave Bali if flights were affected.

Bali tourism is safe. Do not spread misleading news that Bali is not safe because Mount Agung is on the highest alert status. Please come and visit Bali, Mr Sutopo tweeted.

He said a photo circulating on social media of a mountain with lava streaming down its side was of Soputan, a volcano in Sulawesi that erupted in 2015, and not Mount Agung.This is causing people to panic, he said.

However he warned that Besakih​ temple - the largest and holiest Hindu temple in Bali and a popular tourist attraction - was within the highest danger zone.

The Bali Hindu Association issued a statement saying priests had been evacuated from Besakih​ and it urged all Hindus planning to pray at the temple to delay until the conditions weres safe.

Mr Sutopo said National Disaster Management Agency officers were combing the danger zone. Some residents were refusing to evacuate saying they would only do so when the mountain started to erupt.

He applauded the generosity of the Balinese people, who were providing shelter, kitchens, toilets and water for the evacuees.

Locals were also providing areas for evacuees' cattle so they did not have to sell them.

Karangasem regency spokesman I Gede Waskita Suta Dewa said the exclusion area was divided into three zones.

He said almost all of the 50,000 people who lived in the six kilometre zone closest to the crater were believed to have evacuated although some had stayed behind to look after their cows.

However only a small percentage of those within the outer zone had evacuated because even though the area was within the 12 kilometre radius it was considered safe.

As of noon on Sunday the official figure of evacuees was 34,834 although there are likely to be more staying with family and friends who have not been formally accounted for.

Mount Agung last erupted in 1963, killing more than 1100 people. "Many who evacuated went through the 1963 eruption and are still scarred, so they are evacuating," Mr Dewa said.

It was when the underground waves stopped moving from side to side and started to thrust upwards that Nyoman Rauh's extended family of 11 siblings decided to evacuate.

"It was like something was pushing from the ground. It was better we evacuate, we didn't want to take the risk," Mr Rauh said.

The family live in Sebudi village, 10 kilometres from the summit of Bali's ominously grumbling Mount Agung volcano, and the memory of the 1963 eruption, which killed 1100 people is etched in their minds.

Five hundred people died from Mr Rauh's mother's village alone. "There was a thundering sound when it erupted, then it was completely dark, I couldn't see anything," Ni Wayan Purna recalls. "Ashes covered the air. I ran every few hundred metres and curled up when it blinded my eyes."

Ms Purna survived but her husband found his father dead, hugging three of his grandchildren. "They were sent to fetch him but ended up dead with him," Ms Purna says.

This time they were taking no chances. Mr Rauh was forced to sell his cows half price for six million rupiah ($600). "There was no much I could do, if I left them up here and something happens, I will lose out completely."

The family is now sheltering in a sports centre in Klungkung, a regency famous for its classical Balinese paintings, mostly depicting Sanskrit epics Mahabharata and Ramayana.

Ms Purna was worried, remembering how the family dug cassava and ate banana trees and grass, sometimes going days without eating after the 1963 eruption.

But today's government is very good, she says. We are being treated very well, the kids are given a lot of stuff.



Tourism Observer

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