Tens Of Thousands Flee As Active Bali Volcano Set To Erupt
In the latest example of a natural cataclysm displacing tens of thousands of people, and as reported earlier this week, the number of people taking shelter in makeshift evacuation centers on the Indonesian island of Bali has surged to around 104,000, officials said on Thursday, as residents fled the area around a rumbling, active volcano that is expected to erupt momentarily.
Mount Agung, the largest volcano on the island, located some 50 miles from the tourist hub of Kuta, has been shaking since August, and its tremors have increased in both intensity and strength, prompting the Balinese government to evacuate prisoners from local jails and evacuated tourists and residents away from the base of the volcano. The island’s government has declared a state of emergency, according to Reuters.
Thousands more people have been forced to flee in recent day as the government set up an exclusion zone around the volcano’s perimeter.
According to experts who spoke with the Guardian, an eruption is imminent.
Last week Indonesian authorities announced the highest possible alert warning, and besides the evacuations they’ve also set up an exclusion zone that stretches 12km from the crater in some places. Scott Bryan, an associate professor from the Queensland University of Technology, says there have been “very good indications” that an eruption is imminent.
“The fact that the seismic tremors beneath the volcano are increasing in number, intensity, and the reduction in their depth in the last week or so, is a very good indication that magma is moving up to the surface,” he said.
As white smoke started rising from the mountain earlier this week, the Balinese government raised Mount Agung’s alert status to the highest level last week. The last time the mountain erupted, in 1963, a thousand people were killed, hundreds were injured and thousands more villagers had to abandon their homes.
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