Bali on High Alert as Mt. Agung Continues to Erupt

It's only a matter of time before Bali's Mount Agung finally blows its top, Indonesian disaster officials warned on Monday as they raised the threat level to the highest level once again after two months of tremors shoot the popular holiday destination.

The latest eruption, the second in a week, caused airport officials to ground flights for at least 18 hours, stranding tens of thousands of tourists and further hurting the island's already struggling tourism industry. VICE's Indonesia office reported that tourist arrivals were down by an estimated 20-30 percent by the end of October—and that was just caused by the threat of Mount Agung's eruption.

But those who live on the slopes of the volcano have it even worse. When the government raised the warning level on Monday to the highest level, warning that an eruption was "imminent," it triggered the evacuation of as many as 100,000 people from a 10 kilometer radius of the volcano's peak. Disaster officials told reporters that they raised the warning level after the magma started to erupt from the volcano. The last time the volcano erupted, back in 1963, more than 1,500 people died.

In Kubu, a district a short distance north of Mount Agung, life continued as normal on Monday. The villages are too far from the volcano to be evacuated, but at 12 kilometers away they were still close enough to be impacted by its eventual eruption.

A farmer in Tulamben village told our photographer that he planned to continue working his fields as long as he could. He hoped the volcanic eruption wouldn't hurt his eight cows or his peanut farm, but when you're facing down an advisory as big as Mount Agung, all you can do is hope.

"This is a gamble," the farmer told our photographer. "I'm making a bet with Mount Agung. If the mountain erupts and it destroys my land, then it wins."

This story is developing. We'll have more as Mount Agung continues to erupt.

Want to read more about the volcano? Check out the following stories:

Meet the Bali Farmers Ignoring Warnings That Mt. Agung is About to Blow

'All We Do is Sleep': The Crushing Boredom of Life In One of Bali's Evacuation Centers

Answers to All the Questions You Thought Were Too Dumb to Ask About Bali's Mt. Agung

Beautiful Photos of Ghost Villages Left Abandoned In Mt. Agung's Wake

Empty Beaches as Mt. Agung Threat Continues to Loom Over Bali