REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MAGELANG -- Areas around Magelang in Central Java were showered with volcanic ashes until Friday morning believed to come from angry Mount Kelud in East Java.
The volcano erupted again on Thursday nights.
"This morning at 03.00 there were thin ashes but at 04.30 it was getting thick ," a villager, Sucoro, near the famous Borobudur Buddhist temple said.
Sucoro said many villager came out to see the temple was blanketed with thick volcanic ashes.
The Vulcanology and Geology Disaster Mitigation Center (PVMBG) already warned of more dangerous threat from Mount Kelud before it erupted at 22.56 local time on Thursday.
Meanwhile, on Friday morning, hundreds of refugees such as from Wlingi, regency of Blitar, East Java, returned to their village in the sub-district of Gandusari, which is located within the "red line" as they believed the condition was safe.
Head of the Blitar district social affairs office Izul Marom said some of the refugees at Wlingi had returned to Gandusari.
"They fled home to Wlingi when the volcano erupted but returned to their village again immediately after the condition looked safe as they had brought nothing when they left," Izul said.
Izul said generally the villagers in the red line already knew what they had to do when the danger of eruption came.
In Gandusari , a safe place has been provided for refugees that they could flee to that place any time there is danger of eruption, he said.
In North Sumatra, in the regency of Tanah Karo, tens of people have been killed either by volcanic heat or poisonous gases over the past five months.
The eruption of Mount Sinabung over the past five months has destroyed crops, livestock and farmlands that the government has to find new places for the farmers to live and grow crops.
Meanwhile rain triggered flooding and landslides are no less devastating hitting many areas across the country.
Flooding after weeks of incessant rain destroyed crops, inundated roads and highways. Houses were put under water as deep as three meters in Jakarta and other areas.
Roads are full of pot holes endangering highway travelers and hampering traffic.
Ikuti Whatsapp Channel Republika