Beware Of Cold Land Floods Due To High Rainfall On Mount Semeru

The Head of the Geological Agency of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Eko Budi Lelono at the BNPB press conference. (photo: doc. between)

JAKARTA - The potential for high rainfall in the lava dome area of Mount Semeru threatens to flood cold lava in the south and southeast of the mountain.

This was warned by the Head of the Geological Agency of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Eko Budi Lelono. He was worried that a large cold lava flood could occur.

"With rainfall, the potential for cold lahars also leads to the south and southeast which is the largest. Therefore, for the time being, it is better not to have any activity there," said Head of the Geological Agency of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Eko Budi Lelono in a BNPB press conference which was attended by virtual Jakarta, Sunday 5 December evening.

Mount Semeru is located in two administrative areas in East Java, namely Lumajang Regency and Malang Regency.

For this reason, he asked the emergency response team to pay attention to the weather conditions in the location around the disaster and avoid the affected area. This is because there is a potential for lahars due to heavy rains that can threaten the safety of the search team.

In addition, he also reminded that a one kilometer radius from the summit is an unsafe area that does not allow any activity. Not only that, a radius of five kilometers from the crater tear area which will turn into a river going down, especially in the southern and southeastern regions of Semeru, should not occur.

"To avoid the aftershocks of hot clouds that might also go that way, to the south and southeast," said Budi Lelono.

In the media meeting, Head of the Center for Public Meteorology of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) Fachri Radjab said that there was potential for rain around the Mount Semeru area with light to moderate intensity for the next three days.

He explained that in the BMKG forecast there is also the potential for heavy rain in the daytime period. "There is still the potential for rain both on the slopes and at the peak of Mount Semeru," said Fachri Radjab.