5,000 Army Personnel to Deal with Mt Kelud Eruption Fallout

Jakarta (Antara) - The Indonesian Army (TNI AD) is preparing 5,000 personnel to help deal with the fallout from the eruption of Mount Kelud in Kediri district, East Java, on Thursday night. The Army has made available 31 trucks, 23 kitchen sets, 23 sets of communication equipment and a medical team, the head of the Army's Information Service, Brig. Gen. Andika Perkasa, said here on Saturday. He said the 5,000 personnel were drafted from the regional military commands in East Java and Central Java, the Army's strategic reserve command (Kostrad) and the Army's special elite force (Kopassus). On Saturday morning, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Budiman, accompanied by his operations assistant and territorial assistant as well as chief of the Army's information service, left Jakarta for Solo, Central Java, by the Argo Dwipangga executive train. From Solo, the Army chief and entourage will proceed by road to the Army's disaster mitigation command posts in Central Java and East Java. Mount Kelud erupted on Thursday night, leaving several areas in East Java and Central Java covered with volcanic ash, and making it necessary to evacuate thousands of people. As of Saturday, the Mount Kelud eruption has claimed six lives. The information board in Pujon Disaster Post of Malang District, East Java, noted that six deaths have been reported from villages in Ngantang Sub-district. The eruption also led to temporary closure of seven airports and one airstrip on the Java island. The head of Data and Information Center of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, said in a statement on Saturday that the seven airports and one airstrip remain closed on Saturday, as of 10:00 am local time (GMT +7), due to volcanic ash from Mount Kelud. The airports are Juanda (Surabaya), Adi Sumarmo (Solo), Adi Sucipto (Yogyakarta) Abdulrahman Saleh (Malang), Ahmad Yani (Semarang), Husein Sastranegara (Bandung) besides the Tunggul Wulung airstrip in Cilacap. Cleaning operations are still on at the airports following the downpour of volcanic ash, he said. Nugroho said the Volcanic Ash Advisory Center, based in Washington, US, reported that the ash from Mount Kelud has blown clear of Java and Sumatra air space and reached the Indian Ocean towards the west of Sumatra Island. "The VAAC has recommended all airplanes not to fly through that area," Nugroho said. Meanwhile, at 06:00 am Saturday morning, Mount Kelud spewed a plume of white smoke, rising 3,000 meters high. (*) Foto: Syaiful Arief/14