Volcano rumbles as Relief Crews Hunt for Survivors : Bodies of 4,000 are Recovered

The Nevado del Ruiz volcano belched smoke and rumbled ominously today, spreading more terror in an area devastated by an eruption that unleashed raging torrents of mud and water.

U.N. Disaster Relief Organization officials said 4,000 bodies have already been recovered, and officials fear that as many as 20,000 may have died.

Rescue efforts continued under the threat of another eruption, and workers today began dumping the thousands of victims into mass graves--often with no attempt at identification--to prevent an epidemic. Mud-covered survivors--who are believed to number 20,000 --were taken to hastily built hospital tent camps.

Today’s rumbling of the volcano frightened survivors of Wednesday’s disaster.

“I felt a strong tremor, like I felt Wednesday,” Fabio Hernandez, a television technician at a tower 1.8 miles from the volcano, said. He added that smoke from the crater of the shaking volcano was “much bigger” than that from the original eruption.

‘The Danger Is the Ice’

Fearing more flooding and mud slides, officials in Mariquita evacuated residents under the threat of possible flooding from the swollen Guali River.

Father Rafael Governa, a priest and director of the Geophysical Institute of Los Andes, said, “The danger is the ice on the mountain, and if blocks of ice fall into the rivers and block them,” further destruction could ensue.

The 17,716-foot volcano, about 100 miles west of Bogota, exploded about 11 p.m. Wednesday. The resulting water and ice caused little damage close to the volcano but gained force as it moved down the Chinchina, Lagunilla, Guali, Claro and Molino rivers, sweeping away trees and obliterating several towns.

Hardest hit was Armero, a city of 45,000, 93 miles west of Bogota in the nation’s coffee-growing region. Only rooftops, the steeple of a church and a cemetery located on high ground were visible above the mud that covered the town.

“God, what have you done to us?” asked one resident who fled to Mariquita, 18 miles north of Armero, and took refuge in a treetop.

‘Very Many Injured’

Dr. Rueda Montana, president of the Colombian Red Cross, said, “In places, (the mud) is (30 feet) deep, and apart from those killed, there are very many injured among the survivors.”

One thousand Red Cross workers, backed by civil defense volunteers, police and soldiers, worked feverishly to help the 20,000 people left injured or homeless in the muddy aftermath of the flooding.

The death toll could rise to between 15,000 and 20,000, Health Minister Rafael de Zuburia said, speaking 24 hours after the first bodies were recovered from the volcano’s debris-strewn river of mud and ash.

U.N. Disaster Relief Organization officials said 4,000 bodies have already been recovered.

Red Cross official Walter Cotte said many of the dead are being buried in common graves without identification. He said there are neither the means nor the time to take photographs or fingerprints of the dead to assist in future identification.

Failed to Warn Them

Survivors of the blazing ash and the 15-foot wave of mud unleashed by the volcano complained bitterly today that local officials had failed to warn them of the danger the volcano posed, and had even discouraged them from evacuating when the mountain began spitting ash Wednesday afternoon.

“They told us there was no danger, no danger. This happened, and they told us there was no danger,” a woman wrapped in a blanket at a hospital in Mariquita said bitterly.

Another survivor told the television station TV-Hoy that he made his way to safety after the flood of water and mud tore his house apart.

“Then I heard my son screaming, ‘Papa, Papa, come back and save me! The river is taking me away!’ ” the sobbing man said. “I saved him, but when I got back all my other children were dead.”

U.S. officials in the Panama Canal Zone sent 15 helicopters to lift supplies and medical teams into the devastated area. A Venezuelan air force plane loaded with relief supplies landed in Bogota.