News desk
\nIndonesia
\nIndonesia on Thursday raised the danger alert level for an erupting volcano that sparked a killer tsunami at the weekend, after earlier warning that fresh activity at the crater threatened to trigger another deadly wave.
\nAuthorities also widened a no-go zone around rumbling Anak Krakatoa to five kilometres (three miles) — up from a previous two kilometres — and warned shell-shocked residents to stay away from the coast, after more than 400 were killed by Saturday night\u2019s wave.
\nPlumes of ash burst into the sky as pyroclastic flows — hot gas and other volcanic material — flowed down the crater, threatening anyone too close to the volcano and raising the risk of rough seas for boats in the vicinity.
\n\u201cPeople (near the volcano) could be hit by hot rocks, pyroclastic flows and thick ash.\u201d
\nAuthorities raised the crater\u2019s status to high alert, the second-highest warning on the country\u2019s four-point danger scale, while aviation officials ordered flights to be redirected away from the area.
\n– \u2018Just pray for us\u2019 –
\nThe new flows posed no immediate danger to nearby towns as the volcano sits in the middle of the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra islands.
\nBut the status change sparked new fears with many residents already scared and refusing to return to their communities over fears of another tsunami.
\n\u201cThis worries me,\u201d said Ugi Sugiarti, a cook at the Augusta Hotel in hard-hit Carita. \u201cI\u2019ve already left.\u201d
\nSukma, a security guard at the shattered Mutiara Carita Cottages, added: \u201cJust please pray for us and that everything will be okay.\u201d
\nA section of the crater — which emerged at the site of the Krakatoa volcano, whose massive 1883 eruption killed at least 36,000 people — collapsed after an eruption and slid into the ocean, triggering Saturday night\u2019s killer wave.
\nBefore and after satellite images taken by Japan\u2019s space agency showed that a two square kilometre chunk of the volcanic island had collapsed into the water.
\nAt least 430 people were killed in the disaster, with 1,495 people injured and another 159 were missing.
\nNearly 22,000 people have been evacuated and are living in shelters.
\nOn Wednesday evening, the disaster agency said that wind was blowing \u201cash and sand\u201d from the volcano to the nearby towns of Cilegon and Serang on Java, and advised residents to wear masks and glasses if they had to venture outdoors.
\n– Early warning system –
\nTorrential rains have sparked flooding in some areas, hampering the relief effort and heaping more misery on the stricken region, as thousands cram emergency shelters.
\nMedical workers have warned that clean water and medicine supplies were running low — stoking fears of a public health crisis.
\nIndonesia, a vast Southeast Asian archipelago, is one of the most disaster-hit nations on Earth due to its position straddling the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates collide.
\nThe tsunami was Indonesia\u2019s third major natural disaster in six months, following a series of powerful earthquakes on the island of Lombok in July and August and a quake-tsunami in September that killed around 2,200 people in Palu on Sulawesi island, with thousands more missing and presumed dead.
\nThe disaster agency has said it installed new sensors to better monitor tremors at the volatile volcano.
\nThe agency initially said there was no tsunami threat at all, even as the killer wave crashed ashore.
\nIt was later forced to issue a correction and an apology as it pointed to a lack of early warning systems for the high death toll.
\nOne of the hardest-hit areas — Tanjung Lesung — is on a list of 10 destinations that Jakarta wants to turn into another Bali, the holiday island hotspot which draws millions of tourists annually.
\n\u201cWe need to have (tsunami) early warning systems, especially in tourist destinations,\u201d Indonesia\u2019s tourism minister Arief Yahya said Thursday.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re going to make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
News desk Indonesia Indonesia on Thursday raised the danger alert level for an erupting volcano that sparked a killer tsunami at the weekend, after earlier warning that fresh activity at the crater threatened to trigger another deadly wave. Authorities also widened a no-go zone around rumbling Anak Krakatoa to five kilometres (three miles) — up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n