Indonesia volcano: After Mount Semeru erupts rescue workers dig through thick layers of hot ash

The evacuees included a whole lot of villagers who lived close to a dam that burst Monday as a consequence of chilly lava and heavy rain, Operational Chief of Search and Rescue I Wayan Suyatna informed CNN. He added that Monday's search operation was pressured to cease twice as a consequence of pyroclastic clouds -- a combination of ash, rock and volcanic gases that may be far more harmful than lava. "Hot volcanic cloud is dangerous for the team safety," Suyatna mentioned. "The weather here is also really bad. (It is) dark and rainy." Video shared Monday by Indonesia's National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB) exhibits debris-filled mud stretching for miles across the volcano. Villages are fully deserted and autos stay submerged below the sludge, whereas hundreds of bushes are lined in a sheet of ashy mud. Local resident, Hosniya, 31, informed Reuters the eruption caught her abruptly. "At first, I thought it was a bomb explosion ... suddenly it was all dark, like it was going to destroy the earth," she mentioned.Hosniya was evacuated along with her household, however they have been unable to take something with them however their official papers, Reuters reported.

In the village of Sumberwuluh, the place 16 homes have been buried below ash, residents raced to evacuate their livestock on vans Sunday. Roofs of a number of of the village's homes had caved in, leaving bricks and metallic rods uncovered. Aftershocks from the eruption have been additionally felt amongst some residents of Kobokan and Kanjar villages late Sunday. They have been later evacuated to a shelter in a close-by district. The Indonesian authorities mentioned it was getting ready a relocation course of for villagers who misplaced their residence within the eruption. The BNPB mentioned it'll present them with monetary assist earlier than the federal government can relocate them.

Indonesia sits between two continental plates on what is called the Ring of Fire, a band across the basin of the Pacific Ocean that results in excessive ranges of tectonic and volcanic exercise.