Indonesian Volcano Rumbles To Life

Mount Merapi belched out plumes of black smoke and red-hot clouds of deadly gases on Sunday, a day after scientists ordered the evacuation of villagers from its slopes amid warnings that a major eruption was imminent.

But even as lava flows scorched fresh scars down the mountain's western flank, many villagers ignored the warnings and returned to their homes to tend animals and crops that flourish on its fertile slopes.

Vulcanologists raised Merapi's alert status to the highest level on Saturday after weeks of activity at the 9,800-foot peak, which rises from the plains of Indonesia's densely populated Java Island.

The status meant automatic evacuation for thousands of women, children and the elderly who were immediately shuttled by bus and trucks to emergency shelters. Small groups of men were allowed to stay behind overnight to ensure thieves did not move in.

"I didn't need to think twice," said Ariani, an aging woman at one shelter in a makeshift camp at a government building lower down the mountain. "They said move, and I moved," she said, as other woman cooked breakfast at communal kitchens and hung out clothes to dry.

Police manned roadblocks Sunday preventing vehicles from getting within five miles of the volcano's crater, but allowed villagers to return home, advising them to leave again by nightfall.

"My feeling is it will not blow at this time," said Budi, a 30-year-old farmer, who came back to give grass to his cows. Like many other Indonesians, he goes by only one name.

More than 4,500 people living in villages closest to the crater or next to rivers, where hot lava is more likely to flow down, had been evacuated by Sunday. But many young men were staying put, said Widi Sutikno, the official coordinating the emergency response.

"I cannot force them," he said. "All I can do is tell them to keep looking up at the mountain and have a motorbike ready."

Sutikno said there were no plans to immediately move some 18,000 living lower down the slopes who were not considered in immediate danger.

Merapi last erupted in 1994, sending out a searing cloud of gas that burned 60 people to death. About 1,300 people were killed when it erupted in 1930.

Scientists say the hot clouds, which contain a mix of hot ash, rock fragments and volcanic gas, are the main worry this time around. They fear a bulging dome of lava will soon collapse, triggering a surge in the gases.

"Hot clouds keep appearing all the time," said Sugiono, a volcanologist at a station overlooking the mountain. "If you get stuck in them, then you have no chance."

In one village in the shadow of Merapi, holy men burned incense and floated offerings of rice, fruit and vegetables on a river running down from the mountain in a special ceremony they believe will ward off an eruption.

Although most Indonesians are Muslim, many also follow animist beliefs and worship ancient spirits, especially in central Java province. Often at full moons, they trek to crater rims and throw in rice, jewelry and live animals to appease the volcano.

"All the things we are doing here are to try to make us safe," said Aziz Asyhori, an Islamic preacher who also took part in the ceremony. "Only Allah knows if Merapi will explode."

Merapi is one of at least 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, part of the Pacific "Ring of Fire," a series of fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia.

It is about 250 miles east of the capital, Jakarta.