Indonesian volcano erupts eight more times

JAKARTA – Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki erupted eight more times on Thursday, spewing a plume of volcanic ash up to 8,000 metres high, officials said, as the government scrambled to build homes for victims of a big eruption that killed nine.
An eruption on Sunday night on the island of Flores in the province of East Nusa Tenggara, which damaged more than 2,000 houses, was followed by smaller eruptions on the next two days.
On Thursday, the volcano erupted again at 12.40am, the volcanology agency said in a statement, with a second eruption two hours later emitting a fiery red column of lava.
Five eruptions of the 1,584-metre volcano followed from 6am to 11am, with the last belching out the 8,000-metre column of ash.
Billows of the thick grey ash emerged from the crater in pictures provided by the agency. It was keeping the highest alert status for the volcano, which remains very active, said spokesman Hadi Wijaya.
“We expect construction of the new houses will be completed within six months,” the head of Indonesia’s disaster agency, Suharyanto, told reporters, adding that the government was scouting for locations.
The agency is still calculating the number of people who need to be relocated. Evacuees lacked adequate water supplies, Suharyanto added.
So far, 5,816 of the more than 16,000 people living in areas nearest the volcano had been evacuated to other villages, said Heronimus Lamawuran, a spokesperson for the Flores regional government.