Mount Semeru Volcanic Eruptions Plunge Indonesia into Darkness: People Lost, People Missing and People Injured – A long history of natural disasters

News analysis by Maria Wehbe, Staff Writer

December 27th, 2021

On Saturday, December 4th, 2021, the Mount Semeru Volcano located in Indonesia’s East Java Province erupted. It was sudden and unexpected, as this eruption left 48 people dead, and more than 5200 houses and buildings were damaged as a result. Over 5000 people have been affected, where more than 2000 people took refuge at 19 different evacuation points. It is worth mentioning that the deadly emission was triggered by heavy rains: in fact, according to the Head of the Geological Agency of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Eko Budi Lelono, the thunderstorm and persistent rain that took place that day eroded part of the volcano’s lava dome, which is a “plug” of solidified lava at the summit. This caused the dome to collapse, thus triggering the eruption. In the days that followed, Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, visited the areas that were most affected, where he vowed that communities would be quickly rebuilt. He pledged to rebuild infrastructure and that the government’s response was reaching those in need. On Thursday, December 16th, 2021, the volcano erupted twice following the eruption that had happened earlier that month again.

Currently, the situation is very delicate and rescuers are not able to move on with the rescue efforts as it has become very critical: “It is too dangerous for rescuers to continue”, said rescuer Saiful Hasan. Although no casualties and injuries have been reported so far as a result of the most recent eruption, the population has been warned that the collapse of the lava dome could mean that the spew of volcanic materials might become more frequent. It is feared that a new volcanic eruption could occur. As of Saturday, December 18th, Indonesia’s geological agency warned that it picked up increasing activity that could trigger an avalanche of lava and searing gas, similar to the incident that took place on December 4th. In fact, Mount Semeru is one of the most active volcanoes in the Java Province and is the highest one as well. Java is home to the capital city of Jakarta and is the country’s largest population center, making rescue efforts that much more crucial and evacuation procedures that much more stress-inducing as these natural disasters can cost so many more lives than they would in other countries given the density of the population.

In Indonesia, natural disasters are not uncommon and some of the worst ones ever recorded in history are known to have taken place there. In December of 2018, a major 10-foot-tall tsunami hit the Sunda Strait without warning: more than 400 people died, nearly 22,000 people were evacuated or displaced and thousands of homes and buildings were destroyed. Indeed, due to its geographical location, the country has suffered from hundreds of natural disasters over the years, including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and floods. It is also worth noting that this island nation has 136 volcanoes, out of which 61 have erupted since 1900: due to the danger that they pose, they are continuously and consistently monitored by the country’s Center of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation.

Mount Semeru is among the 10 most active volcanoes in the world, and so its eruption came as no surprise; however, the population hadn’t been warned in order to be able to evacuate in time. It is true that it came very quickly, yet the population could have been given a warning as it was the heavy rain that triggered the eruption. As such, experts should have known that there was a possibility of this happening, and so a lot of criticism towards the local government is taking place as the population is furious with the outcome of the situation. They believe that it could have been dealt with in a much better way and maybe, casualties and injuries could have been prevented if they had issued a proper warning.

Although Indonesia is prone to natural disasters, this does not mean that it gets any easier time after time on the Indonesian people. Although they have learned how to deal with the trauma that comes with natural disasters, this in no way signifies that it does not scar and scare them for life. “It never occurred to me to move to a place that’s safer, because the family all live here”, said Endang Pujiastuti, a resident who has lived in a village located at the foot of one of Indonesia’s active volcanoes ever since she was little. Yet, she was forced to evacuate when Mount Semeru erupted earlier this month without any warning. This is what these natural disasters are doing: they are ripping families apart and are destroying the Indonesian people’s sense of safety, and so, the country deserves more international coverage and attention and should keep being talked about, as these catastrophes are happening more often than one might initially think, and something must be done about it.