Reuters
 |
| Fresh Mexican Volcano Blasts Seen |
Mexico's Popocatepetl
volcano, whose eruptions earlier this week forced the evacuation
of some 40,000 people, is probably using two days of calm to build
up to a fresh round of blasts, officials say.
"We're
in a phase where the volcano is rebuilding energy and that it
will certainly release either (Friday or Saturday)," Roberto
Quaas, director of Mexico's National Disaster Prevention Center
(Cenapred), told the Televisa network.
The snow-capped
17,884-foot mountain, located some 40 miles from Mexico City with
its 18 million residents, spat showers of molten rock and flames
on Monday and Tuesday in its most violent activity in decades
— perhaps in as long as five centuries.
But on Thursday,
like Wednesday, Popocatepetl (pronounced poh-poh-kah-TEH-peh-til)
appeared calm, only releasing the occasional plume of smoke and
ash.
Officials,
however, advised evacuees to remain in camps serviced by disaster
relief officials and the Mexican army. "The party's not yet
over," Quaas said, referring to the volcano's activity, which
has captivated the nation.
He said that
the volcano had built up a dome inside its crater containing some
19 million cubic meters (670 million cubic feet) of lava, of which
only about 1 percent had been expelled in this week's eruptions.
But despite
official warnings, an estimated 7,000 people remained in towns
and villages within the 8-mile danger zone around the volcano.
In San Pedro
Benito Juarez, a town of 6,000 some 7 miles from the volcano's
crater, about 400 residents remained in their homes on Thursday.
"It's
looking ugly, but where are we supposed to go?" said Petra
Martinez, 65, an indigenous woman and a grandmother of 30. "I
have two horses, a mule, several turkeys and a mare, and if they
don't die of hunger, then somebody will surely steal them. The
thieves are already about. We know them and we know our people."
|
