Displaying items by tag: eruption threat

As the weeks pass and the Mount Kilauea eruptions show no sign of stopping, many are grappling with ‘What’s next?’ What happens if lava just keeps coming? How will lava-ravaged communities rebuild? The eruptions are in their fourth week, and for the people living on the island their unpredictable future is seemingly unrelenting. Pray for the thousands of families, particularly the elderly and vulnerable, who are being told on news broadcasts to be prepared to vacate their homes at a moment’s notice. Pray for the people returning to their homes to rescue pets and retrieve medicines who are finding mini-volcanoes in their back gardens. Pray for those living in fear as incessant earthquakes shake their homes and heat the ground under their feet, and for the thousands who have lost everything, or fear losing everything. Volcanologists have no idea when the eruptions might end. May God give hope to all whose future looks uncertain.

In September we reported that 122,500 people had been evacuated to locations outside a 7.5-mile exclusion area around Bali's Mount Agung volcano as magma rose during hundreds of daily tremors (see ). On 25 November thousands were evacuating an area within 8-10 kilometres from the peak as lava began to appear. The next day most people had fled but some have remained, despite plumes of smoke and visible lava. They are too frail or sick to move. If Agung erupts again, they will die when fire and rocks rain down and boiling lava flows. Many of the people forced to evacuate their homes are the poorest in Bali. Farmers and construction workers will find it hard to earn money while living in the camps to which they have been evacuated. No one knows when they will be able to return to their villages; financial pressures may force some to go home before the danger has passed.