Volcan de Fuego: The main airport was closed for a few hours
Guatemala’s most active volcano in Central America began a new phase of eruption on Saturday, accompanied by eruptions, lava flows and ash projections.
The eruption of Guatemala’s de Fuego volcano, which shut down the country’s main airport for several hours Sunday, showed signs of an imminent end in the afternoon, the National Institute of Volcanology said.
Fuego, 3763 meters high and located 35 kilometers from the capital Guatemala City, began a new eruptive phase on Saturday evening with eruptions, volcanic flows and ash projections. “Volcanic activity has decreased in intensity, no longer producing fiery clouds or volcanic fountains or eruptive columns of ash,” the Institute of Volcanology said. “These changes suggest the end of eruptive activity at Volcan de Fuego,” he added.
The Directorate of Civil Aeronautics said in a statement that La Aurora International Airport in the Guatemalan capital was closed at midnight due to “ash” near the runway. It resumed operations three hours later, around noon (1800 GMT), Civil Aeronautics Director Francis Argueta said. Francis Argueta said in a video posted on social networks that we decided to resume operations because the “wind blowing from north to south” dispersed the ash. The closure led to the diversion of at least two flights scheduled to land at La Aurora, one from Miami (US) and the other from Santo Domingo, while other flights were delayed, aviation sources said.
No preventive evacuations yet
Separately, the highway linking the south and center of the country, which was closed on Sunday due to the eruption, reopened on Sunday afternoon after the volcano’s activity subsided.
In the indigenous village of Alodenango, located nine kilometers east of Fuego, Central America’s most active volcano, residents witnessed a sudden volcanic eruption on Saturday evening that turned the sky red. “People are used to it and see it as normal,” 28-year-old Mayan farmer Demetrio Pamal told AFP. “Civil security has not ordered preventive evacuations, but is being careful,” spokesman Rodolfo Garcia told AFP.
On June 3, 2018, Fuego caused an avalanche of burning material that swept through the town of San Miguel de los Lodes and blocked part of the road, leaving 215 dead and a similar number missing. “What happened in 2018, the authorities are more alert and active,” said Jose Sul, another resident of Alodenango. Two other volcanoes are active in Guatemala: Santiago (west) and Pacaya, 20 km south of the capital.
AFP
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