http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24483158




Full evacuation around erupting volcano


Last 300 told to join 4,000 others after 'situation changed suddenly'

MSNBC News Services

updated 11:54 a.m. ET May 6, 2008

SANTIAGO, Chile - The Chaiten volcano spewed lava and blasted ash more than 12 miles into the sky on Tuesday, prompting a total evacuation of the provincial capital and other settlements.

President Michelle Bachelet interrupted a speech in the capital to announce that "the volcano is exploding so a total evacuation of the town of Chaiten has been ordered."

Rains following the eruption have carpeted surrounding areas in ash and mud. Hard hit is Chaiten, a small provincial capital of wooden houses and cobblestone streets just 6 miles from the volcano in southern Chile.

More than 4,000 people had fled earlier and the few remaining residents were being transferred to two navy ships.

Local Gov. Fernando Aguilar said some people were resisting, but "everybody must leave."

The volcano's five-day eruption has sent a thick column of ash into the stratosphere, streaming across Patagonia to the Atlantic.

Dozens still in area
Carmen Fernandez, head of Chile's Emergency Bureau, said the final evacuation order covers 300 remaining people — including police, soldiers, emergency personnel, a few reporters and some residents.

Those people were being evacuated by boat across a fjord. Evacuations over the weekend were complicated by the fact that southern Chile is fragmented by fjords and access is often difficult.

Fernandez said the amount of lava emerging from the volcano "is very small and very thick, so it is moving very slowly."

Authorities were also evacuating the ash-coated town of Futaleufu, about 75 miles east of Chaiten near the Argentine border. Many people there wore surgical masks or cloth across their mouth to guard against the gritty ash.

Some of Futaleufu's 1,000 or so residents had already crossed into neighboring Argentina, where some areas have also been showered with ash and where authorities last week closed schools and treated some for breathing problems.

6 inches of ash in places
The ash is more than 6 inches thick in some places, contaminating water supplies and coating houses, vehicles and trees and contaminating water supplies, and authorities are moving thousands of head of cattle from the area.

Local television reported loud groaning sounds emanating from the 3,280-foot volcano, which had been dormant for thousands of years.

"The situation has changed suddenly," national emergency official Rodrigo Rojas said in an interview.

"Today the volcano is erupting with pyroplastic material on a different scale," he added. "We ... have ordered the immediate precautionary evacuation of all civilians, military and press in Chaiten."

Luis Lara, a government geologist, said he did not expect a catastrophic collapse of the volcano, but that a cloud of dense, very hot material could coat the surrounding area.

"This produces a more complicated scenario," Lara said. "A dense cloud of pyroplastic material could move down its slopes, and that causes much more damage (than a spray of lava)."

"The entire volcano will not (collapse), but the eruptive column could, and that is sufficient material to be displaced down its sides and into areas nearby," he added. "Lava flow would not reach Chaiten, but hot fragments, ash and gas could."

Chile has the world's second most active string of volcanoes behind Indonesia.

Please check back for more details on this breaking story.


The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24483158/