Twelve thousand people were told to leave Tagulandang island on Tuesday. By Wednesday, the evacuation was underway — pregnant women and elderly first, loaded onto fishing boats and ferries under a sky still spitting hot rock.
A naval frigate, two passenger ferries, and dozens of fishing boats made the 30-kilometer crossing to Siau island. Lieutenant Commander Sigit Widyanto told state radio the waves were picking up. “We kept the engines running while people boarded,” he said.
Rosalin Salindeho, 95, was carried off the beach. She told reporters after landing on Siau that the eruption “sounded like the mountain was cracking open.” Stones fell like rain, she said. Punched holes through roofs. She left with only the clothes she wore.
Mount Ruang erupted before dawn Tuesday on a remote Indonesian island. The first blast sent lava fountains into the night sky. Incandescent rock fragments set trees on fire on the upper slopes. By sunrise, a second, more violent phase had begun.
Authorities now fear part of the crater could slide into the sea and generate a local tsunami. That would replicate the 1871 event that wiped out coastal villages. The volcanology centre raised the alert to its highest level the same day the eruption began.
Ash shuts down airports across two countries
The ash plume reached 5 kilometers into the sky and drifted northwest at 15 kilometers per hour. AirNav Indonesia closed Sam Ratulangi airport in Manado — the region’s main hub — at 06:00 Tuesday. Gorontalo, Luwuk, Palu, Toli-Toli, and two smaller airstrips followed as radar tracked the ash moving west.
By Thursday, the ash had reached the Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo. Fresh flight cancellations followed on both sides of the border. Seven airports from North Sulawesi to Malaysia’s Borneo coast were affected. The disruption to air travel is ongoing.
The plume moved fast. At 15 km/h, ash covered hundreds of kilometers in two days. Passengers in Manado and Sarawak face continued uncertainty. Airlines have not announced when normal operations might resume.
What to watch next
The tsunami risk remains the most urgent concern. If the crater collapses into the sea, the waves would hit Tagulandang first — the island authorities are now emptying. The 1871 precedent is clear: coastal villages were destroyed. The evacuation is not optional.
Twelve thousand people to move by boat. That is a slow process. The naval frigate helps, but the bulk of the evacuation relies on ferries and fishing boats. The elderly and pregnant women went first. The rest follow as vessels return.
The volcano itself is not done. The highest alert level means further explosive eruptions are possible. The ash cloud could shift again, depending on wind. More airports could close. More flights could be cancelled.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire. Mount Ruang is one of many active volcanoes in the archipelago. But this eruption has already crossed borders — ash in Malaysian airspace, flights grounded in two countries. The fallout is not contained to the island where the mountain cracked open.
