Originally Posted by
Heathrow Harry
The Boys and Girls in Bandung do what they can - 200 people to watch 17000 volcanoes including around 70 active at any one time on a 24/7 watch.
Indonesia's TOTAL budget for natural disaster response is only US$ 296 mm
I know a couple of people professionally involved in this field - and they have the utmost respect for Indonesian volcanologists and the quality of their work. They're world class; very good at what they do; they have to be!
The top guy there - Surono is his name - is one of the best public safety volcanologists in the world; the eruption forecasts produced by him and his team have saved huge numbers of lives.