Residents of Sumbersari village returned to a scene of destruction on Thursday, their homes and roads buried under ash and mud following a devastating series of eruptions from Mount Semeru that prompted the mass evacuation of over 900 people.
The eruption on Wednesday sent towering ash plumes into the sky, with officials reporting that lava and hot rocks were spewed up to 13 kilometers down the slopes of Java’s highest volcano. Authorities have maintained the highest alert level in response to the volcanic activity.
For the villagers who fled, the return was a confrontation with a transformed homeland. The landscape is now ravaged by volcanic material, illustrating the immense power of the event.
Muhammad Kholil, a 50-year-old resident, described the eruption as “massive” and recounted the terrifying speed of the subsequent mudflow. “Mud flowed at a horrifying speed, at a speed of approximately half a kilometre in three minutes,” Kholil said.
Another villager provided a detailed and harrowing chronology of the disaster. He explained that the “very massive” eruption began after midday prayers, around 12:30 PM.
“What is meant by ‘massive’ is that the flow from above slid down extraordinarily fast,” he stated, estimating the material traveled a distance of about 12 kilometers in just three minutes.
He described how ash clouds began descending from the mountain that afternoon, a phenomenon that continued until the evening. “Then the people here ran, evacuating to find a safe place,” he said. It was only after nightfall that they looked towards their village and saw it had been destroyed. “So no one knows the exact chronology because they were all evacuating,” he added, standing near the ruins of his home and a local Muslim prayer room, or musala, which also served as a place for children to study the Quran.
Faced with the devastation, many residents are now grappling with an uncertain future. The same villager, who had lived in Sumbersari for 28 years since childhood, expressed the heart-wrenching decision to leave his lifelong home.
“If you look at the condition, it seems we will look for a safer place,” he said. “Even though it’s actually difficult, because we have lived here since we were little.”
The eruption has not only destroyed property but has also severed deep-rooted community ties, forcing residents to consider starting anew in safer territory as the volatile mountain continues to pose a threat.