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"No
Survivors": Guatemala Volcano Buries Entire Village, 65 Dead
After Violent Eruption Spews Rivers Of Hot Lava
5
June, 2018
Rescue
workers searched tirelessly for survivors amid a desolate grey
landscape of ash and destruction on Monday, one day after Guatemala's
Fuego volcano erupted near the capital. At least 65 are dead and
an unknown number of people are missing, according to Guatemala's
natural disaster commission, also known as Conred.
Volunteer firefighters waded though layers of ash that reached knee-deep in places, only to find the charred remains of those who had been unable to flee the torrent of burning rock and ash that poured down the slopes of the volcano, whose name means “fire.” -NYT
“We
saw bodies totally, totally buried, like you saw in Pompeii,”
said Dr. Otto Mazariegos, president of the Association of Municipal
and Departmental Firefighters, who added that the death toll was
expected to rise, "Probably
in the hundreds."
Rescue
workers have been unable to reach sites on the south side of the
volcano due to a lack of access.
The
speed of the volcano's flows took many by surprise - with some
stopping by the road to watch the eruption - only to break into a
sprint when they realized how fast the plumes were approaching.
Survivors
returning to the village of San Miguel los Lotes on Monday found
nothing but distruction, as the village was turned to rubble by the
force of the eruption.
“My
mother is buried there,” Inés López told a Guatemalan newspaper,
Prensa Libre, standing amid the wreckage of his home. He was numb
with grief. “What can I do to cry? My heart is hard, hard. All our
family is here, buried,” he said waving his hand over the ruins.
-NYT
In recent days, a volcanic eruption occurred in Guatemala, killing more than 62 people. Men, Women and Children. Destroyed properties and livestock. #Pray4Guatemala
As
the day wore on, officials were forced to suspend some rescue
operations because of the fear that the volcano might erupt again.
The deep ravines on the volcano’s slopes were already filled with
lava, Dr. Mazariegos said, and there was no way to tell how a new
flow might spread.
Published
photos from morning visits to the disaster zone showed images of
ordinary life frozen under a coat of gray dust. In one house,
balloons and chairs were arranged for a child’s birthday party.
-NYT
Over
3,000 people have been evacuated, and 1,689 found space in shelters
in neighboring Escuintla and Alotenango, while 46 were taken to the
hospital - many with severe burns.
President
Jimmy Morales declared three days of mourning before touring shelters
and the disaster area. A weeping woman, Eufemia García,
approached his van as he left the buried village of El Rodeo and
Morales got out to listen:
“Mr.
President, my family is missing ... Send a helicopter to drop water
from above because it is burning there. I have three children, a
grandchild, all my brothers and sisters, my mother — more than 20
are missing.”
The
build-up of energy inside the volcano generated an explosion that
resulted in a second, lower crater forming alongside the spewing
Fuego basin. The torrent of molten lava stretched at least five miles
long crushing bridges, roads and buildings in its path. The lava
reached record temperatures of about 700C.
“Every time we lift off a metal roof a huge gush of steam rises out of the building,” rescue worker Juan Diego Alvarez tells the Guardian. “The ash is just too hot for us to work.” Nearby lie several pairs of abandoned burnt boots, melted by the boiling ash. -The Guardian
The
Volcano, located less than 30 miles from Guatemala City, has been
erupting since 2002 according to the Global Volcanism Program.
It is a stratovolcano, like Mount St. Helens, with viscous lava that allows gas pressures to build and leads to more explosive eruptions.
The intense activity began on Sunday morning, with a strong explosion shortly before noon. The volcano then continued to spew ash, rocks and gas into the air. A second powerful eruption followed at 6:45 p.m. and the activity finally subsided after 16½ hours, Guatemala’s seismology and volcanology institute said. -NYT
The
explosion was followed by pyroclastic flows - mixtures of hot rock
and gasses that flow down the volcano's sides at great speed, where
their high temperatures and "great mobility make them lethal to
anything in their path."
Ash
billowed more than a mile above the volcano's cone, dispersing over
an area of approximately 15 square miles, according to the
volcanology institute.
“We
heard a whoosh of the volcano, a sound we hadn’t heard before, and
really strong vibrations,” said science teacher Fernando Aragón,
who lives close to the volcano outside the town of Alotenango.
“We
could see the people fleeing the eruption on the road outside and the
heavy machinery and rescue teams making their way up,” Mr. Aragón
added.
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