Living Precariously On Merapi’s Slopes

Endah, a living witness to the ferocity of Merapi\'s hot clouds, has reminded people to promptly evacuate the area if Merapi showed signs of an eruption.

KOMPAS/HENDRICUS ARGA

Endah Fri Utami, victim of the 2010 Merapi eruption, 19 May 2021.

Endah Fri Utami took refuge several times during the eruption of Mount Merapi. However, until she was 16 years old in 2010, she had not been aware that the hot clouds of Merapi could have reached her home at Bronggang hamlet, Argomulyo village, Cangkringan district, Sleman.

When Mount Merapi, which is located on the border of Central Java and Yogyakarta, erupted in 2006, Endah and her family fled to take refuge at SMP 1 Kalasan state junior high school, which is 12.7 kilometers from their house. Endah\'s hamlet is about 13 kilometers to the southeast from the mountain’s crater.