INDONESIA: Mount Merapi evacuees seek activities to relief boredom

Record ID: 784507

  • Title: INDONESIA: Mount Merapi evacuees seek activities to relief boredom
  • Date: 9th November 2010
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF CHILDREN PLAYING SOCCER IN FIELD
  • Embargoed: 24th November 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Indonesia
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Environment / Natural World
  • Reuters ID: LVA7V1ON0OI0T7JHA3M35DO252TL
  • Story Text: Thousands of evacuees in cramped temporary shelters looked for activities to relief their boredom as they waited for the government to lift restrictions for them to return to their homes on Monday (November 8).
    Authorities widen the danger zone to a 20 kilometres radius as hot ash continued to spew from the crater of Mount Merapi, Java's most active volcano.
    Evacuees at the Maguwoharjo stadium in Sleman district are getting increasingly restless.
    "If we say we do not like this place, yes, we do not like it, but our village is in the natural disaster area so we must like this place," Sutirah, one of evacuees said to Reuters.
    Others have started to look for activities to keep themselves occupied.
    Some evacuees have started a second-hand clothes exchange, while children played soccer in the field.
    "If we are bored, we'll joke with the others. So humor is one of the cure to kill boredom," said Suripto, another evacuee.
    Volunteers and aid workers worry about morale at the camps, which are quickly becoming hot and overcrowded. Adequate supplies of clean water and sanitation are also problems. Workers say some camps have only five toilets for every 1,000 people.
    At Maguwoharjo, volunteers handed out supplies like towels and blankets to the evacuees.
    Scientists say that Merapi could continue to erupt hot gas and ash for weeks, stretching refugees' patience and the government's ability to provide aid.
    The volcano, on the outskirts of Yogyakarta city in central Java, began spewing lava, superheated gas and deadly clouds of ash two weeks ago, and has so far killed over 130 people and forced the evacuation of nearly 300,000.
    Mount Merapi is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the Pacific "Ring of Fire".
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