Announcing Deca #6: The Wizard and the Volcano, by Marc Herman

Announcing Story No. 6:

The Wizard and the Volcano

The Wizard and the Volcano, based on Deca cofounder Marc Herman’s extensive on-the-ground reporting in Indonesia, is a tense page-turner that reveals how an old man helped one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries rethink how it gives aid to victims. When Java's Mount Merapi erupted in 2006, its government-appointed wizard refused to obey orders to evacuate his threatened village. The danger, he said, lay below, in the plains by the sea. When the prediction came true, the wizard became a celebrity, and thousands followed his example, abandoning badly-run government camps to return to their homes under the smoking crater—until the mountain exploded, with stunning results. Starting April 23, the story is available for download on phones, Kindles, iPads, and any Web browser.

"They suffered more from the evacuation than from the eruption." —Marc Herman

Deca's app delivers photos, interactive maps—and deeply reported stories.