The Indonesian authorities began the evacuation operation this Wednesday, which could reach 12,000 people, and closed seven airports affected by the activity of the Ruang volcano, in the north of the central island of Sulawesi. Teams from the National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) evacuated this morning by boat more than a hundred residents of the town of Tagulandang, separated by a small strait from the island-volcano Ruang and less than 5 kilometers from the crater.
With suitcases and bags to store their belongings, the evacuees, many of them children, will be temporarily housed in shelters set up on Siau Island, about 25 kilometers from Tagulandang, according to the videos provided by the state agency. Parts of this coastal city are within the exclusion radius of 7 kilometers around the volcano implemented since yesterday by the authorities, which keep Ruang at the maximum alert level.
Between 11,000 and 12,000 people will be evacuated
Meanwhile, the National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB) estimated the day before that between 11,000 and 12,000 people will be evacuated because their homes are within the exclusion radius, some of whom have been in shelters for days due to the increase in volcano activity recorded for two weeks. The authorities fear that a strong eruption of the Ruang volcano, which yesterday expelled lava and ash more than 5 kilometers high, could cause the caldera to collapse, which, when falling into the sea, could in turn create a tsunami.
In 1871, an eruption of this volcano already caused waves of up to 25 meters that caused more than 400 deaths, the country’s meteorological agency BMKG recalls in a statement. More recently, in 2018, the partial collapse following an eruption of the Anak Kratatoa volcano, located in the Sunda Strait that separates the islands of Java and Sumatra, caused a tsunami that left at least 426 dead.
Seven airports closed
The ash released by the Ruang, which is about 725 meters high and is located on a small island of the same name about 5 kilometers wide, has also caused the closure of seven Indonesian airports, with national and international routes, and is affecting space. air from neighboring Malaysia and Brunei. The most important airfield of the clauses is located in the city of Manado, capital of the province of North Sulawesi and located about 70 kilometers southwest of the volcano, with routes to the Philippines and Singapore, among other countries. “Emissions of volcanic ash (…) are expected to have a significant impact on airspace,” notes BMKG.
Indonesia is home to more than 400 volcanoes, of which at least 129 remain active and 65 are classified as dangerous. In December 2023, the sudden eruption of the Merapi volcano, on the island of Sumatra, claimed the lives of 23 people. Indonesia sits within the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of great seismic and volcanic activity that is shaken by about 7,000 earthquakes a year, most of them of small magnitude.
