Bali volcano: Denpasar airport closed as alert raised to highest level
As Mount Agung erupts, the alert is raised to the highest level today and people within 10km are ordered to leave.
At least 59,000 people are now affected in Bali after the island closed its airport on Monday morning and cancelled 445 scheduled flights in and out of the popular tourist destination because of concerns about volcanic ash from the erupting Mt Agung volcano.
Passengers booked on flights out of the island joined long queues at the Ngurah Rai airport seeking information from makeshift airline help counters and consular stalls set up in the departure terminal.
The decision to close the airport for at least 24 hours - affecting 450 flights in and out of Bali and leaving up to 15,000 international tourists stranded - was announced at 7am (local time) yesterday after volcanic ash, which poses a serious threat to aviation safety, was detected over the airport in numerous tests overnight.
Airport spokesman Arie Ahsanurrohim told The Australian the decision to close the airport for 24 hours was made after volcanic ash was detected in numerous tests overnight at 26,000 and 30,000 feet.
Indonesia’s Volcanology and Hazard mitigation Centre raised the volcano alert to a maximum level four yesterday - indicating a lava eruption could happen with hours or days - as volcanic mud began flowing into villages more than 12km from the crater and steam and ash continued to pour from the crater.
“There are at least 22 villagers in the exclusion zone and we estimate that between 90000 and 100000 people now need to evacuate,” national disaster mitigation agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said yesterday.
“Right now officials and volunteers are going door to door trying to persuade them to evacuate but we do not exclude the possibility of a forced evacuation.”
Mount #Agung eruption ash plume visible briefly between the clouds this morning on Hinowari-8 satellite. #Bali #volcano #Balivolcano #YouStormOutlook pic.twitter.com/4D89pOSIre
— YouStorm (@YouStormorg) November 26, 2017
Tests were being conducted every six hours to determine the presence of ash over the airport but Mr
Ahsannurrohim conceded there was at best a 50/50 chance of the airport reopening tomorrow morning.
“We have to make decisions based on safety concerns first,” he said. “That has to be our top priority. “
The airport was providing five buses every hour to transport passengers keen to get off the island to one of the island’s two bus terminals and sea port connecting to ferries bound for Lombok or East Java.
Lombok airport was reopened early on Monday morning after it was closed on Sunday because of the ash cloud but authorities warned it was being continually assessed and could be closed again.
Mt Agung volcano began showing signs of actvity for the first time in 54 years last September, prompting authorities to instigate a mass evacuation of residents from a radius of up to 12km around the crater.
Some 140,000 people initially fled to hundreds of shelters around the island though all but 25,000 returned to their homes after authorities downgraded the volcano alert level earlier this month from the maximum four to three.
This morning the alert was again raised to four as thick volcanic mud (lahar) flowed down the mountain and into Ban village, 12km north of the volcano.
Fine black ash was also raining down on villages some 20km away though there was only a trickle of new evacuees into major shelters.
North Queenslander Heide Schmidt and her Germany-based sister Christl Schuhmacher said they had been staying in Chandidarsa, south of the volcano, for the past ten days but woke up Sunday morning to find the beach and resort coated in ash.
“They were giving out masks and shower caps to everyone. We had to walk around with an umbrella,” said Ms Schmidt who was lined up with her sister at the temporary Jetstar counter this morning seeking news on her scheduled flight back to Cairns tomorrow.
“everything was covered with ash. I had black feet after walking on the beach. You could really smell the sulphur.”
“It was so fine that when you breathed in it was not good.”
While the two sisters said they were not panicked about getting off the island, others queuing for information were more concerned.
A group of six friends from Darwin said they had gone ahead with their planned long-weekend in Bali despite a minor eruption last Tuesday because “it was too late to change it and we would have lost our money”.
But with their overnight AirAsia flight cancelled and no word on how they would get home some in their party were facing pressure from angry employers.
“It’s a hard thing to explain to your boss that there’s nothing you can possibly do to get back,” said Kurt Fickling, 27.
“They get funny about it but it’s totally out of our control.”
Gede Suantika, a senior volcanologist at the Indonesian Volcanology and Hazard Mitigation Centre, said the volcano had now reached the “magmatic stage”, meaning the lava was moving up to the top of the crater.
“The lava is still at the throat of the volcano but is visible from the crater. Last night we heard loud booms coming from the volcano which means that more lava is pushing its way out,” he said
Mr Suantika said the number of tremors from the volcano had reduced which could indicate that the lave had pushed through the cracks deep beneath the surface of the crater and was now moving through softer layers of earth which offered less resistance.
“But there is still a lot of energy inside the volcano. This eruption could be the opening eruption before the major one hits,” he said.
“Based on what happened in 1963 there could be a series of opening eruptions for the next one month before the main eruption occurs. We are monitoring the volcano very closely.”
Close to 1600 people died when the volcano last erupted and some 220,000 people had to be evacuated.
More Coverage
Women egged in anti-Semitic attack at Bondi Beach
Three men allegedly set upon a number of women on Saturday night in Sydney's east, throwing eggs at them, with police believing they were targeted because of the clothes they were wearing.
‘Hunted down and locked up’: PM condemns latest anti-Semitic attack
Anthony Albanese has condemned a spate of anti-Semitic hate crimes which has culminated in the discovery of a caravan packed with explosives outside Sydney, declaring the perpetrators 'would not succeed' creating hate and division.