Thousand's evacuated after Colombia's Galeras volcano erupts

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

*Perilous Times

Thousand's evacuated after Colombia's Galeras volcano erupts*

From correspondents in Bogota

Agence France-Presse

November 22, 2009 07:07am


Thousand's of people were evacuated and traffic was stopped after the
Galeras volcano erupted in southern Colombia without causing casualties,
officials say.

The locals were taken to shelters in Pasto, the capital of Narino
department on the border with Ecuador, after authorities put the volcano
- the most active in Colombia - on red alert to signal an imminent or
ongoing eruption.

Some 9000 people live in the vicinity of the volcano, which erupted at
8:37 pm Friday (12:37 am Sunday), will be forced to leave their homes
and seek refuge in temporary accommodations if the alert is prolonged,
the Colombia Institute of Geology and Mining (Ingeominas) said.

Narino Government Secretary Fabio Trujillo, whose office coordinates
volcano prevention, evacuation and relief efforts, told local radio that
traffic restrictions would be imposed on the highway linking Pashto -
920 km - to localities close to Galeras.

The eruption caused ashfall in Pashto and surrounding villages,
according to local media.

A 1993 eruption of Galeras, which rises in the Andes mountain chain to
an altitude of 4270m, killed nine people, including six scientists who
had descended its crater to take gas samples.

Ingeominas says the volcano was reactivated in 2004 and causes about 19
earthquakes per year.

Authorities said they are continuing to monitor the nearby Huila
volcano, on orange alert, where sizeable volcanic activity also has been
detected in recent weeks.

The 5363m-high Huila last erupted in November 2008, killing 10 people.