At Guatemala volcano, time running out for rescue chances

A rescue worker carries a flock of farm birds rescued from homes destroyed by the Volcan de Fuego, or “Volcano of Fire,” eruption, in El Rodeo, Guatemala, Wednesday, June 6, 2018. Rescuers were concerned about possible dangers posed not only by more volcanic flows but also rain. Authorities have said the window is closing on the chances of finding anyone else alive in the devastation. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

SAN MIGUEL LOS LOTES, Guatemala — Emergency crews pulled more bodies from what remained of villages devastated by the eruption of Guatemala’s Volcano of Fire on Wednesday but time was quickly running out to find survivors as the confirmed death toll rose to 99 with nearly 200 still missing.

Thousands of people displaced by the eruption have sought refuge in shelters, many of them of with dead or missing loved ones and facing an uncertain future, unable to return to homes destroyed by the volcano.

Firefighters said the chance of finding anyone alive amid the still-steaming terrain was practically nonexistent 72 hours after Sunday’s volcanic explosion. Thick gray ash covering the stricken region was hardened by rainfall, making it even more difficult to dig through the mud, rocks, and debris that reached to the rooftops of homes.

“Nobody is going to be able to get them out or say how many are buried here,” said Efrain Suarez, standing amid the smoking holes dotting what used to be the village of San Miguel Los Lotes on the flanks of the mountain.

“The bodies are already charred,” the 59-year-old truck driver also said. “And if heavy machinery comes in they will be torn apart.”

What was once a verdant collection of canyons, hillsides, and farms, the land is now a barren moonscape. Rescuers poked metal rods into the ground, sending clouds of smoke pouring into the air in a sign of the super-hot temperatures still remaining below the surface, which firefighters said reached as high as 400 to 700 degrees Celsius (750 to 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit) in some places.

At a shelter in the Murray D. Lincoln school in the city of Escuintla, about 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the volcano’s peak, Alfonso Castillo said he and his extended family of 30 had lived on a shared plot in Los Lotes where each family had its own home.

The volcano is one of Central America’s most active, and everyone was accustomed to rumbling and spewing smoke, so at first, nothing seemed abnormal last Sunday, the 33-year-old farm worker said. But then a huge cloud of ash came pouring out.

“In a matter of three or four minutes the village disappeared,” Castillo said. It was smothered in what he described as a “sea” of muck that came crashing into homes, inundating people, pets, and wildlife.

The family holed up in a house that heated up “like a boiler” inside, he said, then made their way onto the roof and then to the upper story of another, concrete home. After a cellphone call to Castillo’s brother, rescuers arrived and took the family to safety.

But the life they knew was gone.

The Volcan de Fuego, or “Volcano of Fire,” continues to spew ash, as seen from El Rodeo, Guatemala, Wednesday, June 6, 2018. Rescuers were concerned about possible dangers posed not only by more volcanic flows but also rain. Authorities have said the window is closing on the chances of finding anyone else alive in the devastation. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

“Nobody wants to go back there. My children say they would rather be in the streets. … There are many people who are helping us, but we have absolutely nothing. We could not get anything out,” Castillo said. “For us, there is no tomorrow.”

Still, there were glimmers of a return to some semblance of normality as Guatemalans across the country donated supplies and local volunteers reached out to those in need.

In an open-air patio at the shelter, people displaced by the volcano sat on plastic chairs as student hairstylists gave them free haircuts.

Naomi Diaz of the Ciraiz Beauty Academy said they were moved to help because they saw people who had lost everything. She said she cut the hair of one woman whose hair had been so badly scorched she was unable to comb it.

“This can serve as a tiny bit of consolation for the people,” Diaz said.

A day after a new evacuation was ordered due to increasing activity by the volcano, a red alert remained in place for the departments of Escuintla, Sacatepequez, and Chimaltenango, and people were advised not to linger near the affected zones.

The country’s seismology and volcanology institute warned of new flows descending Wednesday afternoon through canyons on the volcano’s western slope toward the Pantaleon River, carrying boulders and tree trunks.

Authorities also warned that rains had increased the chance of deadly slides of ash, mud, and debris.

The recovery effort was slow, with local media reports saying nine bodies were recovered on Wednesday. Associated Press journalists witnessed the recovery of at least eight bodies, including five stretchers loaded with body bags in Los Lotes.

A man whose rescue in the town of El Rodeo was shown on video as he was pulled out caked in mud with third-degree burns over 50 percent of his body died at a hospital on Wednesday, the country’s Social Security Institute said.

The official death toll, which was increased to 99 on Wednesday, was expected to further rise, with at least 197 people listed as missing. About 3,500 were in shelters, many of their homes and livelihoods destroyed.

President Jimmy Morales traveled to El Rodeo by helicopter Wednesday to survey the destruction.

Authorities suspended search and recovery efforts in the afternoon, citing the dangers posed by rain and new flows of volcanic material and debris.

In past disasters in which authorities determined there was no chance of finding survivors and further efforts to recover bodies would be too difficult, areas have been declared burial sites, the final resting place of the victims.

Asked about that possibility, the director of Guatemala’s disaster agency, Sergio Cabanas, said: “Not until the search efforts are over, and it would be left up to the people.”        /kga