Total Evacuation As Chile Volcano Begins Flaring

By Charlie Brett
16:37, May 8th 2008
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Total Evacuation As Chile Volcano Begins Flaring

The last small group of civilians and military personnel which was near an erupting volcano in southern Chile was evacuated on Tuesday, as the volcano started to spit a surge of fiery material, officials said.

Chile’s government has already evacuated thousands of people from within a 30-mile radius of the long dormant Chaiten volcano, which is situated 760 miles south of the capital Santiago.

Chaiten is also a town situated just 6 miles from the volcano, and almost the entire civilian population had been evacuated with the exception of 3 stubborn civilians. “Army personnel have seen pyroclastic material, burning material,” Miguel Munoz of the government’s National Emergency Office told Reuters. “So the (remaining) civilian and army personnel have been moved.”

Due to the seriousness of the natural disaster, the government has not ruled out relocating Chaiten's residents permanently.

The Chaiten volcano is 3,280-foot long and began erupting on Friday for the first time in thousands of years. The interesting thing is that the volcanic ash is so dense it can be seen on satellite how it swallows South America’s southern tip.

Experts say that the volcano can spit out ashes for a long time and it can rumble for years. No wonder Chile is hot, as it has 2,000 volcanoes of which 500 are potentially active. In the past 450 years, approximately 60 volcanoes have erupted.

Chaiten village can only be reached by boat or by air, adds Reuters. The navy took people out aboard warships.



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