Eerie calm follows big blast at Indonesian volcano

By SLAMET RIYADI, Associated Press

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia – Thousands of villagers returned to their homes along the slopes of Indonesia's most volatile volcano Sunday, taking advantage of an eerie lull following its most powerful eruption in a deadly week to check on crops and livestock.

Scientists warned, however, that the notoriously unpredictable mountain could burst back to life at any minute.

On the other side of the archipelago, aid deliveries to survivors of a tsunami that barreled into the Mentawai islands one week ago, killing at least 449 people, were expected to resume Sunday, thanks to a break in stormy weather that had grounded planes and ships.

A teenage girl with an open chest wound was among those waiting for help.

The simultaneous catastrophes have severely tested the emergency response network in Indonesia, which lies in the Pacific "Ring of Fire," a cluster of fault lines prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity.

Mount Merapi, which means "Fire Mountain," unleashed a terrifying 21-minute eruption early Saturday, forcing the temporary closure of a nearby airport and claiming the life of a woman who crashed on her motorcycle during a chaotic last-minute evacuation.

Two other people hospitalized with burn injuries died overnight, said Nelis Zuliastri from the National Disaster Management Agency, bringing the death toll from the volcano's activity to 38.

A fiery red glow emanated from its peak Sunday and black clouds of ash tumbled from its cauldron, but the violent bursts and rumbling of the last 48 hours had all but stopped.

"It's still dangerous," warned Surono, chief of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation. "Often a major eruption, like the one we saw Saturday, is followed first by a period of silence, and then by another big blast."

Government camps well away from the base were overflowing with 53,000 people who have fled the mountain's eruptions, said Zuliastri.

More than 2,000 troops have been called in to help keep villagers away during periods of high activity.

When the mountain is calm, however, they are allowed to go back for several hours between dawn and early afternoon to check on their precious livestock and crops.

"My farm has been destroyed by volcanic debris and thick dust. ... All I have left now are my cows and goats," said Subarkah, a farmer from Balerante, a village less than two miles (three kilometers) from the crater's mouth.

"I have to find grass and bring it up to them, otherwise they'll die," he said.

In the tsunami zone, meanwhile, where more than 23,000 people have been displaced, a break in weather raised hopes that boats and helicopters would be able to ferry noodles, sardines and sleeping mats to the most distant corners of the Mentawai Islands.

Relief efforts were brought to a halt Saturday by stormy weather and rough seas.

The death toll climbed to 449 on Sunday up from 413 the previous day with the discovery of more bodies in the disaster-zone, said Zuliastri. But the number of missing — once in the hundreds — dropped to 96 as more islanders returned home after fleeing to safety in the hills.

Survivors were growing increasingly desperate.

At an overwhelmed hospital in Sikakap, the main town on Pagai Utara island, doctors said they need medical supplies to help about 150 injured in the wave. The hospital's swelteringly hot rooms were filled with the moans of patients with flushed, sweat-coated faces.

"We need morphine," said Dr. Alyssa Scurrah, who flew in from Sydney, Australia. She said the hospital was desperate for a generator, antibiotics and a chest drain.

One of Scurrah's patients was a 12-year-old girl who was struggling to breathe due to an open chest wound. She clenched her teeth and cried out as a doctor applied cotton pads to the gash along her rib cage.

The doctor said the girl needs to go to Padang for surgery, but no one could get off the island Saturday because of the weather.

"If she stays here, she may not live," Scurrah said.

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Associated Press writers Achmad Ibrahim and Kristen Gelineau in the Mentawai islands and Niniek Karmini in Jakarta contributed to this report.