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Volcano’s eruption in Guatemala triggers panic among locals

GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA – Alvaro Colom, the Guatemalan presdient, has declared a 15-day state of emergency around the Pacaya volcano, 50km south from the capital.

The volcano awakes again from its dormancy last Wednesday and erupted anew on Friday, killing two people, including a television reporter covering the event, and injuring 59 others. Three children remain missing after the eruption, damaging 800 homes that caused up 2,000 people to evacuate to nearby emergency shelters.

Volcanic ashes also cloaked several planes sitting on the tarmac at La Aurora International Airport in city’s capital. President Colom said the airport would remain closed until later today “because we’ve got to clean the runways and surrounding areas” of ash.

This is not the first time Pacaya has erupted as it is considered the most active out of all the 32 volcanoes in the country. It has been erupting on an infrequent basis since 1966 with the last big eruption in 1998.

Meanwhile in Guatemala, 50 kilometres south of Guatemala City the Pacaya volcano began erupting on Thursday. Many have been injured and latest news is that at least 2 people have been confirmed dead, one being a television reporter. The international airport, La Aurora, will possibly remain closed throughout Saturday due to the runways being smothered in ash.

Yesterday we gave you a story about the Pacaya volcana eruption in Guatemala , Central America, which began on Thursday. It appears that the situation has worsened today following tropical storm Agatha bringing heavy rains in the same area leading to landslides that have now killed up to 17 people.

The capital city is under a double-threat from rain and ash from the volcano forming cement- like mud. Deadly mudslides have already occurred with the threat of more to come, in the city and in the surrounding villages, according to Katie Cassidy on Sky News. Two children and 2 adults in one home were killed when a large boulder crashed onto their house.

There were more than 4-inches of rain in Guatemala City over the course of 12 hours and Cesar George of the Guatemalan Meteorological Institute said, “It rained in one day what it usually gets in a month.” Already more than 4,000 people have fled their homes to shelters and the situation could become even worse as many rivers are close to flooding.

Meanwhile the volcano eruption, around 25 miles south of the city is still continuing, over 800 homes have been wrecked by lava and much of Guatemala City is covered in ash. For more on this story go to Sky News.

At the central plaza in Port-au-Prince, now home to thousands of displaced Haitians, water pelted rows of tents, seeping inside from every direction Monday night. At the Champs de Mars people tried to close shut entrances, some with thin cotton sheets or blankets. Mothers rushed to move children sleeping on the ground.

Suddenly, the constant noise of the street came to a halt, replaced by the thud of monstrous drops falling hard from the sky. The only welcomed sight: gleeful children cooling off after another scorching day.

The water quickly started collecting along the roadside. Aid workers say they fear that constant rain will overflow garbage- and rubble-filled canals, flooding the encampments that have sprouted on their banks.

The situation in some camps could be life threatening.


Haiti's latest hardship: Relentless rain
In Haiti, everyone knows the rainy season’s coming but there is little they can do to prepare. It comes every year in Haiti. The skies open up starting in May and the rains continue for several months. There is the added risk of hurricanes smacking into the nation that now lies devastated by the massive earthquake in January.

The International Organization for Migration estimates that about 2 million Haitians were displaced from their homes and are now living in more than 1,300 makeshift camps, some under bed sheets and flimsy tarps.

“A tent is a good place to be in another earthquake but not in a hurricane,” said Imogen Wall, spokeswoman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Haiti.

Or in heavy rain, like the downpour Monday night in Port-au-Prince.

Almost 50,000 people are camped on the undulating nine-hole Petionville Golf Club. Vital Junior pointed to the dirt under his feet. When it rains, the place turns into a mud bath, slick and treacherous on the slopes.

At another much smaller camp in seaside Carrefour, water gushed down the hill and through the tents.

There are also worries that unsanitary conditions will unleash vicious disease outbreaks – malaria, cholera, dengue fever.

The fear is compounded by memories of Hurricane Jeanne in 2004 that weaved a path of destruction in the Gonaives area. Nearly 300,000 Haitians were affected – more than 3,000 died.

Four years later, Haiti’s third largest city was pummeled again by a series of deadly storms.

With painful images lingering in their minds, 2 million people are sleeping in tents in this year’s rainy season.

They are homeless in the poorest nation in the Americas. Homeless in a nation that’s highly disaster prone and vulnerable to flash floods because of environmental degradation.

Haitians know what to expect of the rainy season, unlike the earthquake. Except this year, many have no roofs over their heads.