Which natural disaster(s) have you experienced? Flood, earthquakes, draught, snow blizzard, volcano eruption or others? Your answer obviously will be dependent on the region of the world you live.
But for the Indonesians, volcano eruptions and earthquakes seem to be the natural disasters they’re familiar with. Just yesterday, Wednesday 27, there was a new eruption on the Mount Merapi, Indonesia’s most active volcano. What appeared to be a long “river of lava" was seen cascading down the slopes of the mountain. This pyroclastic flows gushed from the volcano for four straight hours in the wee hours of the morning.
Thankfully, no casualties were reported. The local authorities may have been prepared for it since an alert of its danger level was given in November of last year by the Research and Development Center for Geological Disaster Technology, which monitors the volcano.
Since then, nearly 2,000 residents had been evacuated from around the mountain region with a 5-kilometers (3-miles) danger zone marked around the crater.
In case you aren’t aware, Indonesia has more volcanoes than any other country because it is situated along the pacific “Ring of Fire", a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the ocean. The Mount Merapi which is 2,968-meter (9,737-foot) is the most active of Indonesia’s volcanoes.
Remember also that in 2010, the last major eruption from Mount Merapi killed about 350 people. So you can imagine the kind of panic the residents are constantly in. God help them.
So back to my question: which natural disaster(s) have you experienced? My answer: NONE and I pray to God not to experience any. That thing is scary ehn!
