MAUMERE, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki volcano continued to spew towering columns of hot ash high into the air on Friday following the huge eruption that killed nine people and injured dozens of others.
Activity at the volcano on the remote island of Flores, in East Nusa Tenggara province, has increased since Monday’s initial eruption, forcing the authorities on Thursday to expand the danger zone.
The latest activity has seen the largest column of ash so far recorded at 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) high, Hadi Wijaya, the head of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation, told a news conference.
Wijaya said volcanic materials, including smoldering rocks, lava and hot, thumb-size fragments of gravel and ash, were thrown up to 8 kilometers from the crater on Friday.
There were no casualties reported from the latest eruption.
The volcano monitoring agency has increased Lewotobi Laki Laki’s alert status to the highest level.
Wijaya said authorities on Thursday expanded the danger zone to a radius of 8 kilometers on the northwest and southwest of the mountain slope as hot clouds of ash “are currently spreading in all directions.”
“We are still evaluating how far the (danger zone) radius should be expanded,” he said.
The volcanic activity has damaged schools and thousands of houses and buildings, including convents, churches and a seminary on the majority-Catholic Island.
Experts at the scene have found craters from rocks falling from the eruptions up to 13 meters (43 feet) wide and 5 meters deep.
Authorities have warned the thousands of people who fled the area not to return home, as the government planned to evacuate about 16,000 residents out of the danger zone.
The series of eruptions this week have already affected more than 10,000 people in 10 villages, with more than half moving into makeshift emergency shelters.
A total of 2,384 houses and public facilities were damaged and collapsed after tons of volcanic materials hit the buildings and destroyed a main road connecting East Flores district where the mountain is located to neighboring Larantuka district, said Kanesius Didimus, head of a local disaster management agency.
Rescue workers, police and soldiers on Friday continued to search devastated areas to ensure all residents had been moved out from the danger zone, as logistic and relief supplies were provided to nearly 6,000 displaced people in three evacuation sites.
The National Disaster Management Agency has said residents of the hardest-hit villages would be relocated within six months, with each family waiting to be rehoused set to receive compensation of 500,000 rupiah ($32) per month.
About 6,500 people were evacuated in January after Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki began erupting, spewing thick clouds and forcing the government to close the island’s Fransiskus Xaverius Seda Airport. No casualties or major damage were reported, but the airport has remained closed due to seismic activity.
Three other airports in neighboring districts of Ende, Larantuka and Bajawa have been closed since Monday after Indonesia’s Air Navigation issued a safety warning due to volcanic ash.
Lewotobi Laki Laki is one of a pair of stratovolcanoes in the East Flores district of East Nusa Tenggara province, known locally as the husband-and-wife mountains. “Laki laki” means man, while its mate is Lewotobi Perempuan, or woman.
The 1,584-meter (5,197-foot) volcano is one of the 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, an archipelago of 280 million people. The country is prone to earthquakes, landslides and volcanic activity because it sits along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.
Karmini reported from Jakarta, Indonesia.
Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki spews volcanic materials during an eruption, in East Flores, Indonesia, Thursday, Nov, 7, 2024. (AP Photo)
Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki spews volcanic materials during an eruption, in East Flores, Indonesia, Thursday, Nov, 7, 2024. (AP Photo)
Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki spews volcanic materials during an eruption, in East Flores, Indonesia, Thursday, Nov, 7, 2024. (AP Photo)
Among several blocs of religious voters, including his loyal evangelical base, Donald Trump fared roughly as well in his victory over Kamala Harris as he did in his loss to Joe Biden four years ago. One notable difference: He did better this year among Catholic voters, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters.
In 2020, the Catholic electorate — one the biggest religious blocs in the nation — was almost evenly split, with 50% backing Trump and 49% favoring Biden, a longtime member of the faith.
This year, according to VoteCast, 54% of Catholic voters supported Trump and 44% backed Harris — a shift that was particularly notable in North Carolina, Florida and Texas.
VoteCast documented a racial divide. About 6 in 10 white Catholics supported Trump, and about 4 in 10 supported Harris. By contrast, about 6 in 10 Latino Catholics supported Harris, and about 4 in 10 supported Trump.
Among other groups, VoteCast found that Trump generally fared about the same against Harris as he did against Biden, notably winning the support of about 8 in 10 white evangelical Christians.
Some of the other VoteCast findings:
--About 8 in 10 Black Protestants supported Harris; 15% supported Trump.
--About 69% of Jewish voters supported Harris; about 30% supported Trump.
--About two-thirds of Muslim voters supported Harris; about one-third supported Trump.
--About 6 in 10 Mormons supported Trump; about one-third supported Harris.
--About 7 in 10 nonreligious voters supported Harris; about 3 in 10 supported Trump.
During the 2024 campaign, as in other recent national elections, Catholic voters were sharply divided over various volatile social issues. Some conservative Catholics said the Democratic Party’s staunch support for abortion rights was reason enough to oppose Harris; some more liberal Catholics said Trump’s demonization of migrants and disinterest in social-justice issues made him unworthy of support.
“Work for justice will certainly be necessary," wrote the Rev. Sam Sawyer, editor-in-chief of the Jesuit news magazine America, in an assessment of the election results.
“Mr. Trump campaigned on the promise of mass deportations, which would tear families apart and destabilize communities across the country,” Sawyer wrote. “Our immigrant brothers and sisters will need voices raised up in their defense, and the Catholic Church especially must be a champion of solidarity with them.”
Kristan Hawkins, a Catholic convert who is president of Students for Life of America, said she — like many abortion opponents — was disappointed in Trump's avowed preference for state-by-state abortion laws rather than a national ban. Yet she staunchly supported him.
“As a Catholic, I understand I am not voting for a priest or a pope or a pastor — I'm voting for a political candidate,” she told The Associated Press. “My choice, either way, is voting for a sinner ... You vote for the person who will limit the amount of evil in the world.”
As for Harris, am outspoken supporter of abortion rights, Hawkins said, “It's been very clear she's not going to be a friend to American Catholics.”
Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, who has worked closely with migrant and refugee communities in South Florida and beyond, sounded a note of “cautious optimism” about a second Trump term, believing that the reality of migrants’ contributions to the U.S. economy will matter more than the “hyperbole” about mass deportations.
“If he wants to accomplish ‘the greatest economy ever,’ he’s going to have to work on some type of accommodation on the immigration issues,” Wenski told the AP.
On abortion and other issues, Wenski said the Biden administration had sometimes given people of faith “heartburn because of policy decisions that seem to intrude on religious liberty.” He applauded Trump's appointment of conservative Supreme Court justices during his first term.
Wenski expressed relief that Florida’s “radically pro-abortion" ballot measure fell short of the 60% support needed for prevailing. But he conveyed his awareness of “a long road ahead of us in promoting a culture of life.”
Trump’s share of Jewish votes — about 30%, according to VoteCast — resembled the 2020 outcome, when 68% of Jewish voters backed Biden and 31% backed Trump.
The CEO of one of the nation’s largest Jewish organizations, Ted Deutch of the American Jewish Committee, said the AJC looked forward to working with Trump and his administration on policies that would bolster Israel’s security and combat antisemitism.
Deutch also urged the incoming administration to “increase unity among the American people and repair partisan divides.”
The CEO of a left-of-center advocacy group, Amy Spitalnick of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, issued a statement saying Trump’s victory is "terrifying for so many communities who have been consistently threatened and demonized by his campaign.”
“Trump’s embrace of anti-democratic, antisemitic, xenophobic, and racist conspiracy theories seeks to pit communities against one another and sow distrust in our democratic institutions, while making all of us less safe,” Spitalnick said.
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AP reporter Giovanna Dell'Orto contributed to this report.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
A cutout of Jesus watches over voters at the voting station at Redeemer Lutheran Church on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Lincoln, Neb. (Kenneth Ferriera/Lincoln Journal Star via AP)
