Chilean volcano turns Chaiten into ghost town
Pastor Dale Morgan
Chilean volcano turns Chaiten into ghost town*
SANTIAGO, May 4 (AFP) May 04, 2008
A volcano in southern Chile erupting for the first time has buried the
surrounding region under a blanket of ash and has turned Chaiten into a
ghost town, with its 4,000 residents facing an uncertain future.
"There's no historical record on this volcano, so we have no way of
knowing if the ash emissions will continue for weeks or even months,"
Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma told reporters a day after the
Chaiten volcano blew its top.
All 4,000 inhabitants of Chaiten have been evacuated to nearby towns and
cities, leaving only a skeleton crew of police, military and government
officials to protect the abandoned properties.
A few locals have stubbornly refused to leave their city, which looks
like a ghost town in television reports.
President Michelle Bachelet Sunday visited the stricken area and at a
press briefing ruled out, for now, moving the entire town of Chaiten to
a new site, far from the volcano, to avoid recurring volcano-related
evacuations.
She said she would fly over the affected area if weather conditions
allow it.
Chaiten and its surrounds are covered in several centimeters (inches) of
ash that incessantly billows out of the Chaiten volcano, some 10
kilometers (six miles) away.
Wind-blown ash has traveled hundreds of kilometers (miles) as far as
Argentina's Chubut province, where town authorities have issued health
emergencies, closing down schools, airports and main roads, and have
distributed drinking water to some areas.
While no injuries have been reported from the eruption and ash
emissions, Radio Cooperativa said a 92-year-old woman died apparently
from cardio-respiratory problems during the evacuation of Chaiten on
Saturday.
The Chaiten volcano is some 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) high and located
about 1,300 kilometers (808 miles) south of Santiago.