After Fears of Volcano, Earthquake Takes All

SARAPCHILIK, INDONESIA, May 29, 2006 — -- For weeks the Suwarno family lived in constant fear of Mt. Merapi, the erupting volcano on their doorstep.

Today, their doorstep is about all they have left as their home and their entire village was flattened by the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that hit Indonesia.

Along with thousands of other families in hundreds of similar rural villages, the Suwarno's are now picking through the rubble, trying to salvage what little they can.

It is heavy lifting, often painful and constantly heart-wrenching in the village of Sarapchilik where 200 people once lived.

Almost all of them were trapped under rubble, buried in their beds when the pre-dawn quake hit. But miraculously a few men managed to dig nearly everyone out, and only six people in the village died.

One villager expressed surprise over this disaster, after they were all worried about what the nearby volcano could do to their town.

Given the earthquake, the fears of Mt. Merapi do seem like a distant memory now. But the earthquake may have actually increased the danger posed by the volcano.

At noon today the volcano was fuming once again.

A scientist monitoring the volcano said all of his equipment was damaged in the earthquake. But even without his instruments he knew right away what a quake this size could do -- trigger a greater lava flow, adding more pressure inside Merapi, meaning an even bigger eruption could be coming.

But the villagers who were once so frightened of the volcano now barely give it a thought, as the earthquake has already taken everything.