Calbuco eruption: locals advised to evacuate

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/24/calbuco-eruption-locals-advised-to-evacuate

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Authorities urged 2,000 people living near the Calbuco volcano to evacuate on Friday after potentially devastating mudflows of volcanic debris were detected in a nearby river, the result of two huge eruptions this week that sent ash across large swaths of southern South America.

Chilean officials said the evacuations were precautionary but necessary, because flows of volcanic mud, known as lahars, are capable of levelling anything in their path.

The area had been evacuated after the volcano first erupted on Wednesday afternoon, but many people had begun to return home by Friday. Authorities said the evacuees from the towns of Chamiza, Lago Chapo and Correntoso would stay at shelters in the nearby city of Puerto Montt.

The volcano, which had been dormant for four decades, sent a plume of ash about 11 miles (18km) high during Wednesday’s blast. A second, spectacular outburst came early on Thursday, with lightning crackling through a dark sky turned reddish orange by the explosion.

The head of the National Mining and Geology Service said that the volcano’s eruptive process could last weeks or even months and warned that a third eruption was possible. “What I can say for certain is that this process is not going to end now,” the service’s director, Rodrigo Alvarez, said. “It’s highly likely that we will have other eruptions, maybe not with the same amount of energy, but with activity that can be worrisome.”

The two mighty blasts left Ensenada a ghost town, abandoned by most of its 1,500 residents. Sitting at the foot of the volcano, the town was covered in thick soot and some roofs collapsed under the weight of the ash.

About 10 miles (16km) from Calbuco’s peak, Ensenada is within the official evacuation zone and most residents complied. But about 30 refused to leave because of worries about their homes and animals. Ensenada was thus empty except for a few residents using masks against the ash and an occasional horse or dog roaming its only street.

The 6,500ft (2,000-metre) Calbuco, which last erupted in 1972, lies near the cities of Puerto Varas and Puerto Montt, about 620 miles (1,000km) south of Santiago. Officials are worried that the clouds of ash could contaminate water, cause respiratory illnesses and lead to more flights being grounded. LATAM, Sky and other airlines said they had resumed service to and from Puerto Montt after cancelling flights over fears that airborne ash could damage jet engines.

But with the coarse dust spreading over nearby countries, Argentine officials grounded flights in Buenos Aires, 923 miles (1,485km) from the volcano after a small amount of ash clouded the sky on Friday.

American Airlines and Air France cancelled flights to the Argentine capital’s main airport of Ezeiza, while Aerolineas Argentinas grounded flights to some cities in the country’s southern Patagonian provinces. Ash also forced the cancellation of some flights to Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo.

Heavier amounts of ash covered towns closer to the volcano. Cars and streets were coated with a thick blanket of ash in Villa la Angostura, Argentina, a town about 56 miles north-east of Calbuco.

Weather experts said the haze from the ash would probably clear up quickly unless there was another eruption. “It doesn’t look like the wind will support a very long trail based on the current forecast,” said Michael Ventrice, an operations scientist at Weather Service International.