20,000 Feared Dead in Colombia Eruption : Volcanic Blast Triggers Huge Mudslides

An Andean volcano in western Colombia erupted early Thursday, melting a deep snowpack and triggering giant mudslides and flash floods that killed an estimated 20,000 people, authorities said Thursday.

It was the world’s most deadly volcanic disaster since one on Mt. Pelee on Martinique more than 80 years ago and the worst natural disaster in Colombia’s history.

Health Minister Rafael de Zubiria estimated the death toll late Thursday at 20,000 or more.

One torrent of mud and rubble buried 90% of Armero, a riverside town with more than 25,000 inhabitants, said Gov. Eduardo Alzate of Tolima province. Alzate estimated that 15,000 to 18,000 people were killed in the town and outlying villages.

“Thousands of persons trapped by the sea of mud remained at midday in trees, roofs and hilltops,” said the Bogota newspaper El Campo. Armero, about 30 miles east of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano and about 100 miles west of Bogota, was a prosperous farming center.

“Armero Wiped Off the Map,” said an El Campo headline.

Other towns were flooded by torrential rivers descending from the 17,716-foot volcano, resulting in hundreds and perhaps thousands of additional deaths.

El Campo said at least 400 people were believed dead in the town of Chinchina, on the volcano’s western slope.

According to several accounts, the volcano had been smoking for weeks, and the activity increased sharply on Wednesday. A series of loud explosions with earth tremors were reported Wednesday night and early Thursday. Eruptions sent up huge clouds of smoke and ash.

Ball of Fire Into Sky

One outburst late Wednesday sent a ball of fire into the sky, said Father Jerardo Guzman, a Roman Catholic priest in the town of Murillo.

“It was a tremendous explosion,” he said.

Volcanic heat melted the massive snowpack around the Arenas crater, one of three craters on the Nevado del Ruiz. The melt-off flooded the rivers, already swollen by heavy rains.

A natural dam on the Lagunilla River gave way above Armero, releasing the huge mudslide that swept through the town.

“The town is now like an immense black beach,” said Fernando Rivera, a private pilot who flew over the area Thursday. Others said the mud was 30 feet deep in some parts of the town.

Only the top floor of Armero’s four-story hospital was visible above the mud Thursday afternoon.

“Down there below are buried the nurses, the doctors, the patients, the nuns, everyone,” Dr. Alberto Carrera told a Colombian reporter who landed on the hospital’s roof in a rescue hospital.

“There are 15,000, 20,000 or many more dead,” the doctor said.

The reporter, Jerman Santamaria, described the town as “a lunar plain, and only here and there can be seen some roofs or an upturned car.”

President Belisario Betancur flew over the disaster area Thursday morning and took direct command of the rescue operation, which included the army, police, Red Cross and civil defense.

He said in a broadcast later: “The situation is very grave. I appeal for the solidarity of all Colombians. . . . We don’t yet know the full scope of the tragedy.”

Ten helicopters worked through the day to rescue survivors. Hospitals in the area were crowded with injured persons.

Calls went out for donated medical and relief supplies, including blood plasma.

Deputy Foreign Minister Guillermo Fernandez said Thursday night that aid was on its way from the United States, Venezuela, Mexico, Panama, Ecuador, Spain, France and Switzerland. The aid included food, first aid materials, tents and teams of rescue specialists.

Sky Filled With Smoke

The volcano’s eruption did not destroy any towns with lava or ash, though the sky was filled with smoke and soot for thousands of square miles around the belching peak. The smell of sulfur was strong.

An Avianca jetliner from Miami could not land at Bogota airport around midnight Wednesday because of smoke from the volcano, radio reports said.

“Smoke was reaching us at 26,000 feet,” Pilot Fernando Cervera told Caracol radio. “The cabin of the plane was filled with smoke and I had to ask the passengers to use oxygen masks. The flames that shot out of the volcano were huge.”

He continued to Cali, 25 minutes from Bogota.

In Armero, the mudslide came shortly after loud rumbling from the volcano in the early morning hours of Thursday. Thousands of residents reportedly escaped.

“I heard the explosion of the volcano and I immediately decided to travel,” Alfonso Herrera told reporters. As he escaped with his family in their car, he said he heard someone at a gas station cry: “My God, the river has overflowed. We are all going to die.”

Residents of towns downstream from Armero poured out of the river valley, looking for refuge on high ground or in distant cities.

In September, a Red Cross commission had recommended that the population be evacuated from the area below the natural dam on the Lagunilla River. The dam, formed by avalanches and earth slides, was about a mile wide.

But Alzate, the Tolima provincial governor, said then that “no immediate risks exist for the inhabitants along the Lagunilla River.”

A team of geologists with a provincial agency recommended that an escape canal be cut through the natural dam to relieve water and mud building up behind it. But the project was never begun.

Other rivers that flooded included the Chinchina, the Claro, Cauca, Guali, Cloro and Molina. Bodies carried by the rushing currents were pulled out by rescue workers.

Fears From Miners

Unofficial reports said about 60 miners may have been buried alive in the California, Tolda and Gallinazo mines on the volcano’s slopes. About 60 coffee pickers were said to be missing on a large estate named La Manuela, near the Chinchina river.

It was the first eruption of the Nevado de Ruiz since 1847. Its most deadly previous eruption was in 1845, when the Lagonea river flooded and thousands of persons were killed.

Most of the volcano’s activity has been in the Arenas crater. The other two craters are named Prana and Olleta.

The volcano is part of a national park, known for its spectacular beauty, in the central range of the Andes Cordillera. There are eight other volcanoes in the area.