Gunung Kelud Meletus, Dentumannya bagai Ribuan Bom Meledak
The Eruption Sounded Like Thousands of Bombs Exploding
Editor : Cahyani Harzi
Translator : Dhelia Gani
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SUARA gelegar dari letusan gunung berapi di pulau terpadat di Indonesia melontarkan abu vulkanik dan pasir hingga 18 kilometer ke udara pada Jumat dini hari, menewaskan dua orang dan memaksa lebih 100 ribu warga mengungsi dan penutupan enam bandara.
Suara letusan Gunung Kelud semalam terdengar hingga 200 kilometer, kata Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana (BNPB).
"Letusan terdengar seperti ribuan bom meledak," kata Ratno Pramono, seorang petani 35 tahun, setelah kembali dari pengungsian untuk memeriksa harta bendanya di Desa Sugihwaras, sekitar lima kilometer dari kawah. "Saya pikir terjadi kiamat. Wanita dan anak-anak berteriak dan menangis."
Abu dan pasir jatuh ke bumi di sejumlah kota, termasuk Surabaya, kota terbesar kedua di Indonesia setelah Jakarta, dengan populasi lebih 3 juta jiwa. Abu vulkanik juga mencapai ke
Yogyakarta, memaksa pengendara menyalakan lampu di siang hari, dan ketinggian abu mencapai lima sentimeter di beberapa tempat.
Seorang pria 60 tahun dan seorang wanita 65 tahun tewas di desa Pandansari dekat gunung yang meletus ketika atap rumah mereka runtuh akibat beban abu dan puing-puing vulkanik dari letusan gunung berapi, kata BNPB seperti dilaporkan AP yang dilansir Mail Online.
Bandara internasional di Surabaya, Juanda dan bandara di kota-kota Yogyakarta, Solo, Bandung, Semarang dan Cilacap ditutup karena terbatasnya jarak pandang dan bahaya yang ditimbulkan abu vulkanik ke mesin pesawat, kata juru bicara Departemen Perhubungan Bambang Ervan. Maskapai penerbangan Virgin dari Australia mengatakan telah membatalkan penerbangan Jumat dari Australia ke beberapa lokasi akibat letusan Kelud, termasuk ke kawasan wisata Pulau Bali dan Phuket di Thailand.
BNPB mengatakan tremor dikhawatirkan masih terjadi, tetapi para pakar vulkanologi berharap tidak terjadi letusan dahsyat susulan. Dikatakan seluruh desa yang berjarak 10 dari Kelud - lebih dari 100 ribu warga - telah dievakuasi ke tempat penampungan sementara, tetapi beberapa penduduk desa kembali ke rumah mereka untuk mulai membersihkan rumah mereka.
Gunung Kelud setinggi 1.731 meter di Jawa Timur - pulau terpadat yang dihuni lebih dari setengah dari 240 juta penduduk Indonesia - berulang kali ´batuk´ selama beberapa minggu dan berada di bawah observasi ketat badan geologi. Gunung ini berjarak sekitar 600 kilometer di timur Jakarta.
Muhammad Hendrasto, kepala badan pemantau gunung berapi di Indonesia, mengatakan gunung meletus keras sekitar 90 menit setelah pihak berwenang menaikkan status siaga ke tingkat waspada. BNPB menyatakan Kelud telah memuntahkan jutaan meter kubik abu vulkanik ke udara.
Kediri, kota yang padat berjarak sekitar 30 kilometer dari Gunung Kelud, mendadak sepi sepi karena warga memilih tinggal di dalam rumah untuk menghindari hujan debu.
"Bau belerang dan abu begitu tebal menggantung di udara yang membuat sesak nafas," kata warga Kediri, Insaf Wibowo.
Beberapa warga menyekop abu dan pasir ke dalam karung yang akan digunakan untuk pembangunan gedung atau untuk menyuburkan tanaman. Salah satu kolektor mengatakan bahwa tengkulak mengatakan bahwa mereka akan membayar hingga Rp672 ribu untuk sebuah truk kecil yang penuh abu vulkanik dan pasir.
Kelud merupakan salah satu dari 130 gunung berapi aktif di Indonesia. Indonesia dikenal sebagai negara kepulauan yang rentan terhadap letusan gunung berapi dan gempa bumi karena posisinya berada di kawasan yang disebut "Cincin Api" - serangkaian garis patahan yang membentang dari belahan bumi Barat melalui Jepang dan Asia Tenggara.
Karena tanah vulkanik dikenal subur dan sempitnya lahan di Jawa, ratusan ribu orang memaksa tinggal dekat gunung berapi aktif.
Letusan besar terakhir Kelud adalah pada 1990, ketika gunung meletus memuntahkan lahar dan lava yang menewaskan lebih dari 30 orang dan ratusan luka-luka. Pada 1919, sebuah ledakan kuat yang kabarnya bisa didengar ratusan kilometer jauhnya menewaskan sedikitnya 5.160 orang.
Awal bulan ini, Gunung Sinabung di Provinsi Sumatera Utara meletus dan pihak berwenang mengizinkan ribuan warga yang telah dievakuasi untuk kembali ke lereng gunung, menewaskan 16 orang. Sinabung meletus selama empat bulan, memaksa evakuasi lebih dari 30 ribu orang.
AN EXPLOSIVE volcanic eruption on Indonesia´s most populous island blasted ash and debris 18 kilometers (12 miles) into the air Friday, killing two people while forcing authorities to evacuate more than 100,000 and close six airports.
The overnight eruption of Java island´s Mount Kelud could be heard up to 200 kilometers (125 miles) away, Indonesia´s disaster agency said.
"The eruption sounded like thousands of bombs exploding," Ratno Pramono, a 35-year-old farmer, said after returning from an evacuation center to check on his property in the village of Sugihwaras, around five kilometers (three miles) from the crater. "I thought doomsday was upon us. Women and children were screaming and crying."
Ash and grit fell to earth in towns and cities across the region, including Surabaya, Indonesia´s second-largest city after Jakarta, with a population of about 3 million. It also fell even farther afield in Yogyakarta, where motorists switched on headlights in daylight, and lay five centimeters (two inches) deep in some places.
A 60-year-old man and a 65-year-old woman were killed in the village of Pandansari near the mountain when the roofs of their homes collapsed under the weight of the ash and volcanic debris unleashed during the eruption, the disaster agency said.
The large international airport in Surabaya and airports in the cities of Yogyakarta, Solo, Bandung, Semarang and Cilacap were closed due to reduced visibility and the dangers posed to aircraft engines by ash, Transport Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said. Virgin Australia said it had canceled its Friday flights from Australia to several locations due to the eruption, including the resort islands of Bali in Indonesia and Phuket in Thailand.
The disaster agency said tremors were still wracking the volcano, but that scientists didn´t expect another major eruption. It said all villages within 10 kilometers (6 miles) of Kelud — more than 100,000 people — had been evacuated to temporary shelters, but that some villagers were returning to their homes to begin cleaning up.
The 1,731-meter-high (5,680-foot-high) Mount Kelud in eastern Java — Indonesia´s most densely populated island and home to more than half of the country´s 240 million people — has been rumbling for several weeks and was under close observation. The mountain is about 600 kilometers (373 miles) east of Jakarta, the capital.
Muhammad Hendrasto, head of Indonesia´s volcano monitoring agency, said the mountain erupted violently about 90 minutes after authorities raised its alert status to the highest level. The disaster agency said it had spewed millions of cubic meters of debris into the atmosphere.
Kediri, a normally bustling town about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the mountain, was largely deserted as residents stayed indoors to avoid the choking ash.
"The smell of sulfur and ash hung so thickly in the air that breathing was painful," said Kediri resident Insaf Wibowo.
Some residents were shoveling the ash and grit into sacks to use for the construction of buildings or to fertilize crops. One collector said that middlemen had already told him they would pay up to $56 for a small truck filled with the debris.
Kelud is among about 130 active volcanoes in Indonesia. The archipelagic nation is prone to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes because of its location on the so-called "Ring of Fire" — a series of fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia.
Due to the fertile volcanic soil and the shortage of space on Java, hundreds of thousands of people live close to active volcanoes.
Kelud´s last major eruption was in 1990, when it kicked out searing fumes and lava that killed more than 30 people and injured hundreds. In 1919, a powerful explosion that reportedly could be heard hundreds of kilometers away killed at least 5,160 people.
Earlier this month, Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra province erupted as authorities were allowing thousands of villagers who had been evacuated to return to its slopes, killing 16 people. Sinabung has been erupting for four months, forcing the evacuation of more than 30,000 people.
