Airlines stop Jakarta flights after volcano blast

[November 06, 2010]  MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia (AP) -- The tiny hospital at the foot of Mount Merapi struggled Saturday to cope with its victims after the volcano unleashed its most powerful eruption in a century, as international airlines canceled flights into the Indonesian capital hundreds of miles away.

The only sign of life in one man, who's eyes were milky gray in color and never blinked, was the shallow rising and falling of his chest. Others, their lungs choked with abrasive volcanic ash, struggled to breathe.

Indonesia's most volatile mountain unleashed a surge of searing gas, rocks and debris Friday that raced down its slopes at highway speeds, torching houses and trees and incinerating villagers caught in its path.

It continued to rumble and groan Saturday, at times spitting gray clouds of ash and gas up to five miles (eight kilometers) into the air, dusting windshields, rooftops and leaves on trees hundreds of miles (kilometers) away Saturday.

Several international carriers for the first time temporarily canceled flights to the capital Jakarta -- 280 miles (450 kilometers) west of Merapi -- over concerns volcanic ash in the air could cause damage to their aircraft and engines, jeapordizing safety.

Among them were Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and Malaysia Airlines.

With more than 90 people killed, many of them after succumbing to their injuries, Friday was Merapi's deadliest day in decades, but Sigit Priohutomo, who works at Sardjito hospital, predicted the toll would rise.

With a nearby airport closed because of poor visibility, ventilators needed for burn victims were stuck in Jakarta, and were being delivered instead by road, he said. In meantime, nursing students were using emergency respirators pumped by hand.

The volcano, in the heart of densely populated Java island, has erupted many times in the last two centuries, but many people choose to live on its rolling slopes, drawn to soil made fertile by molten lava and volcanic debris.

In recent days, however, more than 200,000 people have crammed into emergency shelters in the shadows of the volcano, which showed no signs of tiring.

"It's scary. ... The eruption just keeps going on," said Wajiman, 58, who was sitting in a shelter near a girl reading a newspaper headlined "Merapi isn't finished yet."

Packed together on muddy floors, flies landing on the faces of sleeping refugees, many complained of poor sanitation, saying there were not enough toilets or clean drinking water.

The village hardest hit Friday, Bronggang, was nine miles (15 kilometers) from the glowing crater, still within the perimeter of the government-delineated "safe zone."

The zone has since been expanded to a ring 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the peak, bringing it to the edge of the ancient royal capital of Yogyakarta, which has been put on its highest alert.

The biggest threat is the Code River, which flows into the city of 400,000 from the 9,700-foot (3,000-meter) mountain and could act as conduit for deadly volcanic mudflows that form in heavy rains.

Racing at speeds of 60 mph (100 kph), the molten lava, rocks and other debris, can destroy everything in their path.

People living near the river's banks have been advised to stay away.

Several were seen packing up Saturday, as Yogyakarta was pounded by rain, and later a light sprinkle, turning the dust covering streets, cars and rooftops into a wet, dark sludge.

Merapi's latest round of eruptions began Oct. 26, followed by more than a dozen other powerful blasts and thousands of tremors.

With each new eruption, scientists and officials have steadily pushed the villagers who live along Merapi's slopes farther from the crater.

The latest eruption released 1,765 million cubic feet (50 million cubic meters) of volcanic material, making it "the biggest in at least a century" at Merapi, state volcanologist Gede Swantika said as plumes of smoke continued to shoot up more than 30,000 feet (10,000 meters).

Priohutomo, the hospital official, said the mountain has killed 138 in the last two weeks.

More than 200 injured people -- with burns, respiratory problems, broken bones and cuts -- waited to be treated at three different hospitals.

"We're totally overwhelmed here!" hospital spokesman Heru Nogroho said.

Some of Merapi's victims had burns covering up to 95 percent of their bodies.

The facility's burn unit is limited to 10 beds, however, and it turns away any patient without facial burns or whose body is burned less than 40 percent, said Priohutomo.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 235 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanoes because it sits along the Pacific "Ring of Fire," a horseshoe-shaped string of faults that lines the Pacific Ocean.

[Associated Press; By SARAH DiLORENZO]

Associated Press writers Irwan Firdaus, Ali Kotarumalos and Niniek Karmini in Jakarta contributed to this report.

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