Cold lava sweeps villages near volcano, killing 37
Flash floods and cold lava from a volcano wreaked havoc on the western Indonesian island of Sumatra, claiming the lives of at least 37 individuals. Mount Marapi, Sumatra’s most active volcano, unleashed torrents of ash and rocks as heavy rainfall pounded the region on Saturday.
The resulting cold lava mudslides submerged two districts, causing casualties and extensive damage to over 100 residences, mosques, and public structures. With 18 individuals still unaccounted for, authorities fear the death toll may rise further.
Survivors recounted their harrowing escape from the advancing cold lava, a viscous mixture of volcanic material and pebbles. Rina Devina, a 43-year-old resident of Agam district, described the terrifying ordeal of hearing thunderous crashes as Mount Marapi disgorged boulders, prompting her frantic flight to safety using her cellphone as a makeshift torch.
By Sunday afternoon, rescue teams had recovered 19 bodies from the hardest-hit village of Canduang in Agam district, with an additional nine bodies retrieved from the neighboring Tanah Datar district, as reported by the National Search and Rescue Agency.
Berliana Reskyka, another resident of Agam, shared the emotional toll of assisting injured neighbors amidst the chaos, highlighting the anguish of those searching for missing loved ones or mourning the loss of family members.
This calamity adds to a string of natural disasters experts attribute, at least in part, to human-induced environmental factors, underscoring the urgent need for mitigation measures.
“Flash floods and cold lava mudslides continue to recur and increase in intensity due to excessive exploitation of natural resources and haphazard development,” said Wengki Purwanto, the director of the West Sumatra branch of the Indonesian Forum for Environment.
“As a result, disasters repeat themselves every year. In fact, they increase in frequency every year. The distance between one disaster and the next becomes closer,” he said.
The area around Mount Marapi has seen several similar disasters in the past six months.
Last 5 December, 23 hikers were killed when the volcano erupted while in February this year, flash floods damaged dozens of homes in the Tanah Datar.
Just last month, days of eruption threw huge clouds of ash – up to a height of 2km – into the sky. Flights in the region were disrupted, roads closed, and more than 11,000 people were told to evacuate.
Marapi translates from the local Minang language to “Mountain of Fire”.
