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General discussion

Multifold Darwin award in the offing <sigh>

by Dave Konkel [Moderator] May 14, 2006 1:21PM PDT

Gas Clouds Shoot Down Indonesia Volcano.

>> Villagers burned incense and floated offerings to the spirits, hoping to ward off an eruption of Mount Merapi, but activity at the volcano intensified on Monday ? with one blast sending ash, rock and gases more than two miles down the slope...

Despite a government evacuation order, many farmers were in the fields to tend animals and crops on the volcano's fertile slopes, ignoring black clouds billowing into the sky and fresh scars scorched by lava flows on the mountain's western flank.

"I cannot force them," said Widi Sutikno, the official coordinating the government's emergency operation. "All I can do is tell them to keep looking up at the mountain and have a motorbike ready." <<

Having seen firsthand (years after the fact, at Mt. St. Helens) what pyroclastic flows can do, *I* certainly wouldn't hang around, even if my home were there. That's why we left for Rita...

-- Dave K, Speakeasy Moderator
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The opinions expressed above are my own,
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Discussion is locked

2 Posts

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and if it blows

by Mark5019 May 14, 2006 8:34PM PDT

how long before its blamed on the usa, bush, and global warming

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In a way I can understand their reluctance

by Josh K May 15, 2006 1:12AM PDT

Those fields are their livelihoods and it must be hard to leave until and unless you must. I think they must though; this volcano looks like it will blow any minute.

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