Tragedien i 2010 forårsagede død blandt befolkningen omkring vulkanen Mount Merapi på det tætbefolkede Java. Men ulykken gjorde også folk opmærksomme på, at de boede lige op ad en faretruende ulmende katastrofe. Og det tager de bestik efter.
YOGYAKARTA, 8 March 2013 (IRIN): When Indonesia’s Mount Merapi, north of central Java’s capital Yogyakarta, started spewing thicker and more colourful clouds of smoke in October 2010, local residents wavered over the risk it signalled. The delay proved fatal.
The time lost put one family in a horrific predicament. With only a single motorbike, the parents could not transport their family of six in a single trip so it was decided to remain at home so that the whole family would live or die together. They and some 350 others perished.
The brother of the mother of that family, Margoutomo, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name, said that after the 2010 tragedy, Merapi residents came to acknowledge they had lived alongside the 2,914m volcano for so long that they had become dangerously inured to its threat.
However, more than two years on, residents say they are much more aware of the danger and better prepared.
“Before 2010, if there was lots of smoke from the volcano or even rocks rolling down it, we didn’t pay much attention,” said Suwarni, a woman in her thirties who runs a gift shop for tourists on the mountain. “Now, even if there is a small sign of some activity from the volcano, people react quickly.”
“Now there is much better coordination and we’re always disseminating information about the weather,” said Triyanto, 30, a tour guide and community emergency response volunteer.
Improved warning system
Læs videre på: http//irinnews.org/Report/97608/Indonesian-volcano-survivors-relocated-better-prepared
