Extreme conditions
Weather and danger hinder search for victims of Guatemala volcano eruption.
SAN MIGUEL LOS LOTES: Troublesome rain and more volcanic activity are hindering search and rescue efforts around Guatemala’s Volcano of Fire, but when teams have been able to work in the hardest hit areas, the death toll has continued to rise.
Efforts were cut short again on Wednesday when a downpour forced teams to retreat for fear of mudslides.
Boiling water flowing down the volcano’s slopes from dangerously hot volcanic gas and ash also posed a threat. A day earlier, flows of super-heated volcanic material forced crews to pull back.
But between stoppages, search teams working with shovels and heavy equipment found more bodies from Sunday’s big eruption. Remains were loaded into body bags and carried out on stretchers.
Guatemala’s National Institute of Forensic Sciences raised the death toll to 99 late yesterday afternoon, an increase of 24 bodies for the day.
Only 28 of the total had been identified and at least 197 people were listed as missing.
“Nobody is going to be able to get them out or say how many are buried here,” Efrain Suarez said, standing amid the smoking holes dotting what used to be the village of San Miguel Los Lotes on the flanks of the mountain.
“The bodies are already charred,” the 59-year-old truck driver said. “And if heavy machinery comes in, they will be torn apart.”
Rescuers poked metal rods into the ground, sending clouds of smoke pouring into the air in a sign of the super-hot temperatures still remaining below the surface, which firefighters said reached as high as 400°C to 700°C in some places.
A day after a new evacuation was ordered due to increasing activity by the volcano, a red alert remained in place for the departments of Escuintla, Sacatepequez and Chimaltenango.
The country’s seismology and volcanology institute warned of new flows descending through canyons on the volcano’s western slope toward the Pantaleon River, carrying boulders and tree trunks.