Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 5 June 2018

Guatemala volcano death toll up to 62, expected to rise

By SONIA PEREZ D Authorities have said
Associated Press they feared the death
EL RODEO, Guatemala (AP) toll could rise with an
— The charred landscape undetermined number of
left behind by Guatemala's people unaccounted for.
erupting Volcano of Fire The disaster agency said
was still too hot in many 3,265 people had been
places Monday to pull out evacuated.
bodies so thickly coated Among the fatalities were
with ash that they looked four people, including a
like statues as the death disaster agency official,
toll rose to 62 and was killed when lava set a house
expected to go higher. on fire in El Rodeo, National
Rescuers in helicopters Disaster Coordinator
managed to pull at least Sergio Cabanas said. Two
10 people alive from ash children were burned to
drifts and mud flows that death as they watched the
were up to the rooflines volcano's second eruption
of some homes, forcing this year from a bridge, he
first responders to use added.
sledgehammers to break Dramatic video showed a
through the roofs to see fast-moving flow of mud,
if anyone was trapped ash and slurry slamming
inside. into and partly destroying
Residents of El Rodeo, a bridge on a highway
about eight miles (12 between the towns of
kilometers) downslope from Sacatepequez and
the crater, said they were Escuintla. Ash from the
caught unaware by the A resident cries after she was safely evacuated from her home near the Volcan de Fuego, or volcano, which lies about
fast-moving hot ash and "Volcano of Fire," in Escuintla, Guatemala, Monday, June 4, 2018. 27 miles (44 kilometers)
rock when the volcano Associated Press west of Guatemala City,
west of Guatemala City fell on the capital area as
exploded Sunday, sending when we went out the hot so far because the flows operated a backhoe. A well as the departments
towering clouds into the air. mud was already coming that reached temperatures group of residents arrived of Sacatepequez,
Searing flows of ash mixed down the street." as high as 1,300 degrees at the scene with shovels Chimaltenango and
with water and debris "My mother was stuck Fahrenheit (700 Celsius) and work boots. Escuintla. Streets and
gushed down the volcano's there, she couldn't get had so disfigured the Some residents said they houses were covered in the
flanks, blocking roads and out," said Lopez, weeping bodies. never learned of the colonial town of Antigua, a
burning homes. and holding her face in her "We're having a lot of danger until it was upon popular tourist destination.
Hilda Lopez said the hands. trouble identifying them them — and were critical Aviation authorities
volcanic mud swept into Lopez's husband, Joel because some of the of authorities. closed Guatemala City's
her village of San Miguel Gonzalez, said his father dead lost their features The country's disaster international airport
Los Lotes, just below the had been unable to or their fingerprints. We're agency "never told us to because of the danger
mountain's flanks, and escape and was believed going to have to use other leave. When the lava was posed to planes, but the
she didn't know where her to be "buried back there, anthropological methods already here they passed airport was reopened at
mother and sister were. at the house." and if possible take DNA by in their pickup trucks mid-morning Monday after
"We were at a party, At least 62 people were samples to identify them." yelling at us to leave, but workers cleared away ash.
celebrating the birth of confirmed dead, according In the village of El Rodeo, the cars did not stop to One of Central America's
a baby, when one of the to Fanuel Garcia, director heavily armed soldiers pick up the people," said most active volcanos, the
neighbors shouted at us of the National Institute of wearing blue masks to Rafael Letran, a resident of conical Vocano of Fire
to come out and see the Forensic Science. All came ward off the dust stood El Rodeo. "The government reaches an altitude of
lava that was coming," the from the hamlets of Los guard behind yellow tape is good at stealing, but 12,346 feet (3,763 meters)
distraught woman said. Lotes and El Rodeo, but cordoning off the scene as when it comes to helping above sea level at its
"We didn't believe it, and only 13 had been identified orange-helmeted workers people they lack spark." peak.q