Death toll climbs
A man examines the ash-covered hulks of vehicles tossed about by the eruption of Guatemala’s Fuego volcano in San Miguel Los Lotes, a village in Escuintla on Monday. The death toll from the eruption of a highly active volcano near Guatemala’s capital rose to 65, the country’s disaster management agency said.
EL RODEO, Guatemala — Rescue workers on Monday pulled more bodies from the dust and rubble left by an explosive eruption of Guatemala’s Fuego volcano, bringing the death toll to at least 69.
Of them, 17 have been identified so far, said Fanuel Garcia, head of the National Institute of Forensic Sciences.
In addition, there are 46 people injured, most of them seriously, with more than 1.7 million being hit by the disaster, including 3,271 ordered evacuated and 1,787 in shelters in the departments of Escuintla, Sacatepequez and Chimaltenango since the eruption.
The 3,763-meter volcano erupted early on Sunday, spewing out towering plumes of ash and a hail of fiery rock fragments with scalding mud.
Authorities had warned the death toll could rise.
“There are missing people, but we do not know how many,” said Sergio Cabanas of Guatemala’s disaster management agency.
The speed and ferocity of the eruption took mountain communities by surprise, with many of the dead found in or around their homes.
Cabanas said those who were killed had been overrun by fast-moving burning material discharged by the volcano. Communities located on its southern slope were the worst hit. Several of the dead were children.
A journalist saw at least three bodies burned in the rubble of the village of San Miguel Los Lotes, where rescue workers, soldiers and police were desperately searching for survivors. Dead dogs, chickens and ducks also lay among the mud and ash, much of it still smoking.
“I do not want to leave, but go back, and there is nothing I can do to save my family,” a weeping Eufemia Garcia, 48, said. She was searching for her three children, her mother, nephews and siblings.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was saddened by the “tragic loss of life and the significant damage caused by the eruption”, and said the UN was ready to help.
National mourning
President Jimmy Morales, who has declared three days of national mourning, visited the disaster zone.
“The volcano has erupted before, but never like this,” said Gustavo Larius, 27, a bricklayer searching the streets of his village for missing family and friends, a handkerchief pressed over his mouth and nose.
The eruption sent ash billowing over the surrounding area, turning plants and trees gray and blanketing streets, cars and people.
Farmers covered in ash fled for their lives as civil defense workers tried to relocate them to shelters.
“This time we were saved; in another (eruption) no,” said Efrain Gonzalez, 52, sitting on the floor of a shelter in the city of Escuintla, where he arrived with his wife and one-year-old daughter.
Gonzalez was overwhelmed with despair, as two more of his children, aged 10 and four, are missing. They were trapped in their home, which was flooded with hot mud that descended from the volcano.
Dense ash blasted out by the volcano shut down Guatemala City’s international airport, civil aviation officials said.
The eruption ended after 16 hours, but “there is a likelihood that it will reactivate”, the Institute of Volcanology said.
Fuego has been erupting since 2002, and was continuously active in 2017.