JAKARTA — Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki erupted for the second time in four days on Saturday, sending a column of ash 12 kilometres into the air and forcing the emergency evacuation of more than 6,000 residents from surrounding villages on the island of Flores, national disaster officials said.
The eruption, which began at 2:47 a.m. local time and lasted approximately 45 minutes, was captured on monitoring cameras operated by the Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Agency. Authorities raised the volcano’s alert level to the highest possible status — red — and expanded the exclusion zone from 5 kilometres to 7 kilometres around the crater. Thick layers of grey ash coated homes and farmland up to 8 kilometres from the summit.
“This eruption was even larger than Tuesday’s,” said Budi, head of the local disaster mitigation agency in East Flores Regency, speaking to journalists by telephone. “The ash column reached well into the stratosphere. We are urging everyone within 7 kilometres to evacuate immediately and not to wait.”
The national disaster agency BNPB confirmed that 14 people were treated at local health centres for breathing difficulties and eye irritation caused by the ash. At least two villages — Hokowahu and Walangbaya — reported partial collapses of traditional thatched-roof homes under the weight of accumulating ash, though no fatalities had been confirmed as of Saturday afternoon.
This is the second major eruption at Lewotobi in less than a week. On Tuesday, a previous eruption killed nine people, injured 31 and destroyed at least 240 homes in the same area. That blast generated pyroclastic flows that descended the volcano’s western slope toward farmland communities. The nine victims included three children and an elderly couple who had refused to evacuate despite mandatory orders.
Airline operations across eastern Indonesia were disrupted. State-owned carrier Garuda Indonesia cancelled six domestic flights connecting to and from the provincial capital of Labuan Bajo. Volcanic ash poses a severe risk to aircraft engines, and the national aviation authority issued a “do not fly” advisory within 15 kilometres of the eruption column. International flights passing over the region were rerouted to avoid the ash plume.
President Prabowo Subianto convened an emergency cabinet meeting in Jakarta on Saturday morning and ordered the BNPB to deploy additional search-and-rescue teams and humanitarian supplies to the affected area. The Defence Ministry also put air force helicopters on standby to support evacuation operations if roads became impassable due to ash-covered surfaces.
Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki, whose name translates from Indonesian as “the husband of the volcano,” sits on the relatively densely populated island of Flores in East Nusa Tenggara province. It is one of more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, a nation that sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and experiences hundreds of seismic events every year. The volcano has erupted repeatedly in recent years, but the scale of this week’s activity is among the most significant in the region’s recent history.
The Indonesian Red Cross mobilized volunteers from its Flores chapter and dispatched 200 family-sized emergency supply kits, including blankets, water purification tablets, instant food and basic medicines. The organization’s provincial director said the priority was preventing respiratory illness from spreading among the displaced population, many of whom are now staying in community centres and schools turned into temporary shelters.
International monitoring agencies including the Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Program classified Saturday’s eruption as a VEI-3 event, indicating a moderate to strong explosive eruption capable of regional impact. Volcanologists monitoring the crater via satellite said the magma chamber appeared to be recharging rapidly following Tuesday’s eruption, suggesting further activity within days or weeks was possible.
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade issued a travel advisory on Saturday afternoon urging Australians to defer non-essential travel to East Nusa Tenggara province. The UK Foreign Office issued a similar warning. Both governments said their embassies in Jakarta were in contact with local authorities and stood ready to assist any nationals caught in the affected area.
Sources: BNPB Indonesia, Reuters, AP, Jakarta Post, BBC, Channel News Asia, The Guardian, Nikkei Asia, Global Volcanism Program, Garuda Indonesia
Written by Kenji Tanaka, Asia-Pacific Bureau Chief
Kenji Tanaka
Kenji Tanaka covers Asia Pacific security, technology, and geopolitics from Tokyo.