Java: 11,000 people flee homes as hot toxic mud engulfs villages

[Robbien]

Four villages and 19 factories have been submerged in a 240-hectare (600-acre) sea of mud in East Java that is growing up to 50,000 cubic metres a day in a major environmental disaster triggered during an oil exploration venture. A few rooftops are still visible, along with hastily constructed dykes which could not hold back the flow of toxic mud that began on May 29 around an oil exploration drilling rig.

Eleven miles of dykes are being built by 1,500 soldiers and labourers around the clock to contain the growing catastrophe, in which 11,000 people have lost their homes or been forced to evacuate.

A 100 metre-high column of thick white smoke is visible several miles from Porong district, 22 miles south of Indonesia's second largest city, Surabaya, in East Java, and the smell of rotten eggs pervades the hazy tropical air. The mud is up to seven metres deep, and every few seconds the earth jolts and another dollop of hot sediment belches out. Occasionally the mud exits more dramatically, shooting up several metres into the air with a loud "whooosh". The gas stings people's eyes and it is impossible to breathe without taking in the fumes, even with a mask.

The drilling company is PT Lapindo Brantas, which is controlled by the family of Indonesia's powerful senior welfare minister, Aburizal Bakrie. Its senior vice-president in charge of the clean-up, Imam Agustino, admits he has no idea when the mudflow will be stopped, let alone when the affected land will be useable again.

"We don't know if the source of the mud really comes from the well bore or somewhere else," he told the Guardian. "The best-case scenario is now mid-November, but I have to admit it might never be stopped."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/indonesia/Story/0,,1856933,00.html

[uppityperson]

1. wow, that is amazing, thank you for posting this.

off to check other places about this. Wild.

[IndianaGreen]

2. My G-d, what have these idiots done?

Hot mud gushes from the ground in Porong in East Java. Photograph: Eka Dharma/Getty

Java is in one of the most volcanic areas in the world. Not the kind of place I would be drilling without knowing first what is underground.

Other villages are in danger of being submerged and experts estimate that the land has been sinking by up to three centimetres a month since May.

[sam sarrha]

8. it was Toba, a super volcano, that erupted and started the ICE AGE.! Toba

is about 380 miles from the Big Tsunami earth quake last year

[bahrbearian]

16. Lets see ..how can we twist this

it's not Clear Sky's,,can't be Green Forest.. Maybe Healthy Mud Baths?

[havocmom]

3. Since May! Anybody hear a peep of this from US 'news'?

Havocdad said only thing left to do is open a big ol spa. Get the fat cats' wives to pay big bucks to be slopped in the damn mud.

[CornField]

4. Senior 'welfare' minister?

I hope that means something different there than it does here.

That is so very sad. Mid-November... maybe?

[beam me up scottie]

5. Goddamn it.

Yet another environmental disaster that should never have happened.

[skids]

6. Holy crap! K&R. n/t

[beam me up scottie]

9. Yeah, k&r.

I'm glad to see the msm is all over this. :eyes:

[Tellurian]

7. Nature's revenge for oil men's greed..

Oil should be banned as a toxic substance. The logical reason it is so difficult to extract from the earth. duh!

[CornField]

10. Found some more pictures

http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5176652,00.jpg

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,19612186-913,00.html

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/07/07/svSANTOS_wideweb__470x328,0.jpg

http://www.theage.com.au/news/business/santos-gets-caught-in-toxic-indonesian-mudflow/2006/07/07/1152240489432.html



http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20060707.G01&irec=0



http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=June2006&file=Local_News200606267742.xml





http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13816553/

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/08/11/12WOR_JAVA_wideweb__470x281,0.jpg

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/java-sinks-deeper-into-toxic-crisis/2006/08/11/1154803098601.html





http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=96845&version=1&template_id=45&parent_id=25

[IndianaGreen]

11. The first picture gives a good sense of the scale

with the crane and the mud hole.

http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5176652,00.jpg

[beam me up scottie]

12. I keep thinking of the wildlife,

who also end up paying the ultimate price. :mad:

[Zorra]

13. "All the King's horses, and all the King's men,.."...

...couldn't put the planet back together again.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

14. The article is incredibly scary - a "mud volcano"!!!!

9,000 meters deep that they have no idea if they will successfully cap.

[NMDemDist2]

15. Holy CRAP!

I guess if you poke Mother Nature with a stick long enough, she's bound to turn around and bite you.

poor villagers :cry:

[Robbien]

17. Java just got hit with an earthquake today

and last month it got hit with a tsunami

Surabaya (ANTARA News) - An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale rattled Central Java district of Cilacap Friday morning, an official said.

The quake`s epicenter was located 97 km southwest of Cilacap, East Java meteorological and geophysics agency expert staff member Edy Waluyo said here Friday.

The epicenter of the tremor that rocked Cilacap at 5.37 a.m. was traced at 108.61 degrees east longitude and 8.51 degrees south latitude, he said.

There was no immediate report on casualty and material loss.

Edy did not mention whether or not the Friday morning`s quake caused tsunami like the one that hit the southern part of West Java and Central Java in July.

Tens of people including tourists were killed when tsunami damaged Central Java districts including Cilacap and West Java`s tourist destination of Pangandaran following the major earthquake which measured almost 6 on the Richter scale last month.

http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=18839

[Theres-a]

18. Indonesia has bird flu,too.

Sad.They're really getting hit on alot of fronts.