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.
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.
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.
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.”
Source: smh.com.au