Death toll rises after Guatemalan eruption
EL RODEO: The death toll from a volcanic eruption in Guatemala rose to 69 yesterday as family members desperately searched for the missing in makeshift morgues and on streets blanketed with ash.
Guatemala’s national disaster agency, Conred, updated the death toll as more bodies were pulled from the debris around the village of El Rodeo. Just a fraction of the victims have been identified so far.
At a makeshift morgue in the city of Escuintla, about 30km from the explosion, distraught family members came to search for their relatives among the dead.
Francisco Quiche, a 46yearold welder, gave a blood sample to try to identify his son’s body, though he already knew his son’s fate. After evacuating El Rodeo with his family, he returned to search for his son and daughterinlaw. Peering through a hole in the wall of his son’s home, he saw his son’s body. He fears his daughterinlaw is dead as well.
‘‘My son was just 22 years old, the same as my daughterinlaw, who was expecting a baby,’’ he said through tears.
The eruption of Fuego — Spanish for ‘‘fire’’ — on Monday was the biggest in more than four decades. By early afternoon yesterday, the volcano’s activity was lessening, and it was expected to continue to diminish in the coming days, Eddy Sanchez, director of seismological, volcanic and meteorological institute Insivumeh, told reporters.
The task of retrieving bodies yesterday was hindered by another eruption, and an apparent landslip on the southern slopes of Fuego triggered fresh evacuations. Heavy rains forced rescuers to abandon the search in El Rodeo until the next morning, a Conred spokesman said, and rain was expected to continue to complicate searches in the coming days, Sanchez said.
Elsewhere, the process of mourning had begun. Local television footage showed residents of villages walking through the streets, caskets hoisted on their shoulders.
Structures and trees at the base of the Fuego volcano were completely coated in brown and grey.
‘‘The landscape on the volcano is totally changed, everything is totally destroyed,’’ government volcanologist Gustavo Chigna said.
The eruption showered sand and ash on coffee plants across as much as 2788ha, causing an estimated loss of 0.91% of Guatemala’s coffee production, the country’s national coffee association said.
In some areas, rain rinsed ash off the leaves, and the full extent of the damage was not yet clear, it said. — Reuters