Jakarta (Reuters).- Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo said Tuesday that he would help with evacuation efforts and rebuild homes damaged by the Mt. Semeru is the disaster zone after Java’s devastating volcanic eruption.

On Saturday, the volcano at 3,676 metres high erupted in spectacular fashion. It hurled a huge cloud of ash into space and sent dangerous pyroclastic flows down its slopes into nearby villages.

The nation’s disaster management agency says at least 22 victims have been killed, 27 are missing, and many more have been forced to flee their homes.

After visiting evacuation centres and surveying the affected areas via helicopter – an aerial view of villages submerged in thick, molten ash – the president said recovery efforts would be bolstered now and in the months ahead.

President spoke in Sumberwuluh (one of the worst-affected areas) and stated, “I visited the site to ensure we have forces to locate victims.”

“We believe that once everything is subsided that it will be possible to start fixing the infrastructure and even moving those who are in danger of being relocated to safer places.”

He said that at most 2,000 houses would need to relocate to safer places.

While rescue and search efforts continued on Tuesday, the recent heavy rains and wind have hampered them in many areas.

Mt. Semeru erupted three times on Tuesday, and amid warnings from the country’s geological agency that heightened seismic activity could continue.

Andiani (the head of Indonesia’s Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation) stated Monday at a press conference that further pyroclastic flows or fast-moving hot gas, rocks and ash avalanches were possible.

Mt. Semeru, one of Indonesia’s more than 100 active volcanic sites is located in the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, a region of seismic activity that lies atop several tectonic plates.