Guatemala ends victim searches at volcano where 110 died

Eva Ascon, is embraced by a family member as rescue workers search for her rest of her family at the affected by the Fuego volcano at San Miguel Los Lotes in Escuintla, Guatemala June 15, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

By Sofia Menchu

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – Guatemala on Sunday ended its victim search efforts in the zone that suffered most deaths and injuries from the Fuego volcano eruption, its disaster agency said.

At least 110 people died and 197 are still missing after violent eruptions that began two weeks ago, according to disaster agency CONRED.

Eva Ascon, looks on next to rescue workers as they search for her rest of her family at the affected by the Fuego volcano at San Miguel Los Lotes in Escuintla Guatemala June 15, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

Eva Ascon, looks on next to rescue workers as they search for her rest of her family at the affected by the Fuego volcano at San Miguel Los Lotes in Escuintla Guatemala June 15, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

“The search efforts are permanently suspended in the towns San Miguel Los Lotes and El Rodeo in the Escuintla municipality… the zone is uninhabitable and high risk,” CONRED said in a statement on Sunday.

The Fuego volcano, whose name means “Fire” in Spanish, is emitting four or five minor explosions daily and shooting columns of ash up to 15,420 feet (4,700 meters) above sea level, CONRED said.

Escuintla is operating 12 shelters for nearly 2,800 people displaced from homes that were swallowed by ash and dirt, while more than 770 people are staying in shelters in nearby areas.

Some survivors lost nearly all members of extended families after the volcano sent fast-moving currents of dust, lava and gas down its slopes in its greatest eruption in four decades.

(Writing by Daina Beth Solomon; editing by Diane Craft)

Vice President Pence to visit Guatemala volcano victims: White House

Rescue workers continue to search for human remains, after the eruption of the Fuego volcano, in San Miguel Los Lotes in Escuintla, Guatemala June 14, 2018. REUTERS/Luis Echeverria

By Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Mike Pence plans to visit volcano victims in Guatemala as part of a three-nation trip at the end of the month aimed at building Latin American ties and pressuring Venezuela, a White House official said on Thursday.

Pence is scheduled to head to Brasilia during the last week of June, followed by a stop in the northern Amazonian city of Manaus, which is grappling with refugees who have fled Venezuela’s economic crisis, the official said.

Rescue workers continue to search for human remains, after the eruption of the Fuego volcano, in San Miguel Los Lotes in Escuintla, Guatemala June 14, 2018. REUTERS/Luis Echeverria

Rescue workers continue to search for human remains, after the eruption of the Fuego volcano, in San Miguel Los Lotes in Escuintla, Guatemala June 14, 2018. REUTERS/Luis Echeverria

Pence has led the U.S. diplomatic push to pressure Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the socialist leader who the Trump administration blames for the deep recession and hyperinflation that have caused shortages of food and medicine in the once oil-rich

nation.

Washington has stepped up economic sanctions against individuals connected to Maduro and refused to recognize his re-election in a May 20 vote. Both countries have expelled each others’ diplomats.

Trump has considered more sanctions on services related to oil shipments from the OPEC member nation, but so far has not opted to act on those.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence speaks before President Donald Trump during a rally with supporters at North Side middle school in Elkhart, Indiana, U.S., May 10, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence speaks before President Donald Trump during a rally with supporters at North Side middle school in Elkhart, Indiana, U.S., May 10, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis

During the past year, Pence has visited leaders in Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Panama and Peru. At the end of June, he will also visit Quito, Ecuador, before stopping in Guatemala.

At least 109 people were killed by a massive eruption of Guatemala’s Fuego volcano on June 3 that buried villagers in scalding ash and left nearly 200 missing.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Writing by Eric Walsh; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Bill Berkrot)

Volcanic ash forces Guatemala airport to suspend operations

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – Guatemala City’s La Aurora international airport temporarily suspended operations on its only runway on Wednesday due to ash after the Pacaya volcano increased activity, a week and half after a violent eruption from another peak killed more than 100.

“This is a preventative measure taken to safeguard the lives of passengers and aircraft safety,” Guatemala’s civil aviation authority said.

Pacaya, located some 48 kilometers (30 miles) south of the capital, is spewing a column of ash and gas some 3,500 meters (11,483 feet) into the air and has produced different low-level lava flows over the last few months, the seismological, volcanic and meteorological institute Insivumeh said in a statement.

Winds are blowing the column some 10 kilometers (6 miles) to the north, northeast.

Insivumeh asked authorities to prepare for the possibility that Pacaya may increase its volcanic activity over the “coming hours or days.”

Guatemalan authorities are already on high alert after the Fuego volcano erupted on June 3, shooting fast-moving currents of ash, lava and super-heated gas down its slopes that buried villages in its path. The eruption of the volcano was its worst in four decades, killing at least 110 people and leaving nearly 200 missing.

Pacaya, one of Guatemala’s 34 volcanoes, had its last major eruption in 2010, killing three people and forcing hundreds to evacuate.

(Reporting by Sofia Menchu; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Sandra Maler)

In Guatemala, woman searches for 50 relatives buried by volcano

Eufemia Garcia, 48, who lost 50 members of her family during the eruption of the Fuego volcano, argues with a police officer trying to enter to search for her family in San Miguel Los Lotes Escuintla, June 9, 2018. Picture taken June 9, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

By Sofia Menchu

SAN MIGUEL LOS LOTES, Guatemala (Reuters) – Eufemia Garcia watched in horror as Guatemala’s Fuego volcano sent scalding ash and gas surging over her home a week ago, burying her children and grandson among 50 of her extended family. She has been searching for their remains ever since.

At least 110 people died after Fuego erupted last Sunday, pushing fast-moving currents of dust, lava and gas down the volcano’s slopes in its greatest eruption in four decades, and close to 200 more are believed buried beneath the waste.

Eufemia Garcia, 48, who lost 50 members of her family during the eruption of the Fuego volcano, looks at rescue workers as they search for her family in San Miguel Los Lotes, Escuintla, June 9, 2018. Picture taken June 9, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

Eufemia Garcia, 48, who lost 50 members of her family during the eruption of the Fuego volcano, looks at rescue workers as they search for her family in San Miguel Los Lotes, Escuintla, June 9, 2018. Picture taken June 9, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

Among them, Garcia believes, her nine siblings and their families as well as her mother, her own grown-up children and a grandson, making her family possibly the hardest hit in a disaster that officials admit was made worse by delays in official warnings.

The hamlet of San Miguel Los Lotes on the lush southern flank of the volcano was almost completely swallowed by several meters of ash, and formal search efforts have been suspended until the still-erupting volcano stabilizes.

Defying the suspension order, each morning, Garcia, 48, leaves the shelter she now sleeps in, grabs a pickaxe or a shovel and heads into the danger zone, where groups of volunteers and other families dig down through ash hardened by rain and sun to try and reach their homes below.

Another desperate survivor, Bryan Rivera, is searching for 13 missing relatives. All he has found so far in the dust and desolation is a guitar his 12-year-old sister had loved to play.

“I’m not going to give up until I have a part of my family and am able to give them a Christian burial,” Garcia said, her features drawn with fatigue and grief but her voice unfaltering.

A fruit seller who lived for more than three decades with her extended family in Los Lotes, Garcia said she was out purchasing eggs when she saw the volcanic flow racing toward her village.

She sprinted back to her family’s homes, where uncles and a brother, children and cousins were preparing for a lunch to celebrate a sister visiting from a nearby town.

Rapping furiously at one door after the next, she cried for them to flee. Few heeded the warnings. Her 75-year-old mother decided she could not outrun the danger.

Eufemia Garcia, 48, who lost 50 members of her family during the eruption of the Fuego volcano, points the area where use to be her house in San Miguel Los Lotes Escuintla, June 9, 2018. Picture taken June 9, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

Eufemia Garcia, 48, who lost 50 members of her family during the eruption of the Fuego volcano, points the area where use to be her house in San Miguel Los Lotes Escuintla, June 9, 2018. Picture taken June 9, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

“Let God’s will be done,” she said.

Desperate, Garcia ran, jumping over fences together with fleeing neighbors. From a safe distance, she saw the burning flow rise to the roof of her house, submerging it completely with her son Jaime, 21, inside. She watched as the ash rushed toward her daughter Vilma Liliana, 23, who sprinted for safety barefoot but was unable to outpace its terrible path.

Her other daughter Sheiny Rosmery, 28, stayed at home, her son in her arms. The visiting sister and her husband have not been found.

With almost no family left, she does not know where she will live next, or what she will do to survive. But for now, she says, all that matters is the search.

She ticks off a list of her missing, including her three children, her mother, her grandson, brothers, sisters, nephews, children of nephews and brothers-in-law, generations of a relatives among the clutch of families that settled in Los Lotes in the 1970s.

The only survivors are Garcia and a brother who long ago moved away.

“I’ve looked here in the morgue and in another morgue, but there is no sign of them,” she said, standing in front of a row of coffins at a makeshift mortuary.

“My family is buried. All 50 of them.”

(Reporting by Sofia Menchu; Writing by Delphine Schrank; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Lisa Shumaker)

Search for survivors temporarily suspended near Guatemala volcano

he Fuego volcano is seen from San Miguel Los Lotes in Escuintla, Guatemala June 7, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

AN MIGUEL LOS LOTES, Guatemala (Reuters) – Authorities on Thursday temporarily suspended the search for survivors near Guatemala’s Fuego volcano following deadly eruptions due to hazardous conditions for rescue workers, a spokesman for national disaster management agency CONRED said.

Residents are seen amidst ashes as heavy machinery removes ash from a road at an area affected by the eruption of the Fuego volcano at El Rodeo in Escuintla, Guatemala June 6, 2018. Picture taken June 6, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

Residents are seen amidst ashes as heavy machinery removes ash from a road at an area affected by the eruption of the Fuego volcano at El Rodeo in Escuintla, Guatemala June 6, 2018. Picture taken June 6, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

The death toll from the eruptions that began on Sunday now stands at 100, according to police.

Rescue workers have been searching frantically for survivors and victims in the lava-ravaged landscape left by the eruptions, which showered volcanic ash over nearby towns and spewed pyroclastic flows throughout the area.

CONRED spokesman David de Leon announced the suspension of rescue work and recommended that residents stay away from the still-dangerous area.

The suspension may be lifted if conditions on the ground improve, he added.

The active volcano is located about 25 miles (40 km) southwest of the capital, Guatemala City.

(Reporting by Sofia Menchu; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Rescuers tirelessly search for 200 missing near Guatemala volcano

Workers remove ashes from a road at an area affected by the eruption of the Fuego volcano at El Rodeo in Escuintla, Guatemala June 6, 2018. REUTERS/Fabricio Alonzo

By Sofia Menchu

SAN MIGUEL LOS LOTES, Guatemala (Reuters) – Rescuers scoured a lava and ash ravaged landscape in Guatemala for a third straight day on Wednesday in search of survivors and victims of Fuego volcano’s calamitous eruption, which has left an estimated 85 people dead and some 200 missing.

Volcan de Fuego, which means “Volcano of Fire,” exploded violently on Sunday, shooting thick plumes of ash miles into the sky that rained down on residents and sending superheated pyroclastic and lava flows barreling through nearby towns.

A thick layer of still smoldering ash and volcanic rock blanketed the tiny hamlet of San Miguel Los Lotes, with only the roofs of some homes sticking out.

Guatemala’s seismological, volcanic and meteorological institute Insivumeh heightened its warnings after the volcano erupted again on Tuesday, forcing evacuations and sending rescue workers scrambling for cover.

But by Wednesday morning, rescuer workers were back at it with pickaxes, metal rods and flashlights in hand, risking their own lives in search of victims or a miracle survivor. Bulldozers stood by to help.

“We can only work in places where we can stand on the roofs of houses … because the ash is very hot. There are places where you stick the pickaxe or rod in and we see a lot of smoke coming out and fire and it’s impossible to keep digging because we could die,” said 25-year-old rescuer Diego Lorenzana.

Elsewhere, rescuers plunged metal rods into the quickly hardening ash that sat atop what was previously a roadway in a desperate search for trapped vehicles, a video by local TV station Televisiete showed.

The extent of the devastation was widespread.

Cecilio Chacaj, a spokesman for the municipal firefighters department, said the bodies of another nine victims have been recovered on Wednesday.

An elderly man, who was featured in a video shortly after the eruption that showed him in a state of shock, caked from head to toe in ash and mud, died from the severe burns he suffered.

That brings to 85 the number of dead.

Guatemala’s national disaster management agency, CONRED, said 1.7 million people have been affected by the volcanic eruption, Fuego volcano’s biggest in four decades, and over 12,000 have been evacuated.

Volunteers were also distributing humanitarian aid, including clean drinking water, to victims.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said they have released more than 250,000 Swiss francs ($253,446) from its global emergency fund to support frontline emergency efforts.

These funds will help “Guatemala Red Cross support 3,000 of the most vulnerable survivors for three months,” they added.

The 3,763-meter (12,346-feet) Fuego Volcano is one of several active volcanoes among 34 in the Central American country. It lies near the colonial city of Antigua, a UNESCO world heritage site that has survived several major eruptions.

(Reporting by Sofia Menchu; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Guatemala warns of greater activity after volcano explodes again

Policemen inspect at an area affected by the eruption of the Fuego volcano in the community of San Miguel Los Lotes in Escuintla, June 5, 2018. REUTERS/Luis Echeverria

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – Guatemalan authorities warned that the Fuego volcano was showing signs of greater activity on Tuesday night as the death toll from a devastating eruption at the weekend climbed to 75 and nearly 200 people remained missing.

Displaced people walk along a road from an area affected by the eruption of Fuego volcano in Escuintla, Guatemala June 5, 2018. REUTERS/Luis Echeverria

Displaced people walk along a road from an area affected by the eruption of Fuego volcano in Escuintla, Guatemala June 5, 2018. REUTERS/Luis Echeverria

The seismological, volcanic and meteorological institute Insivumeh heightened its warnings after the volcano erupted again earlier on Tuesday, forcing evacuations and sending rescue workers scrambling for cover.

The peak had its most devastating eruption in more than four decades on Sunday, showering ash on a wide area and sending lava flows through nearby towns.

The national disaster agency, CONRED, said 192 people remained missing after the disaster and the forensic agency, Inacif, raised the death toll to at least 75, up from 72.

“The conditions are extremely critical at this moment,” Insivumeh Director Eddy Sánchez told reporters.

Volcan de Fuego, which means “Volcano of Fire” in Spanish, is one of several active volcanoes among 34 in the Central American country. It lies near the colonial city of Antigua, a UNESCO world heritage site that has survived several major eruptions.

A soldier walks at an area affected by the eruption of the Fuego volcano in the community of San Miguel Los Lotes in Escuintla, June 5, 2018. REUTERS/Luis Echeverria

A soldier walks at an area affected by the eruption of the Fuego volcano in the community of San Miguel Los Lotes in Escuintla, June 5, 2018. REUTERS/Luis Echeverria

The latest activity has been mostly on the far side of the volcano, facing the Pacific coast.

The eruption on Sunday sent columns of ash and smoke 6.2 miles (10 km) into the sky, dusting several regions with ash. Thousands of people have been evacuated, CONRED said.

(Reporting by Sofia Menchu; Writing by Dave Graham and Julia Love; Editing by Daniel Flynn, Sandra Maler and Paul Tait)