Search On for Colombia Survivors : Warning of Avalanche Issued as Volcano Still Rumbles

The Nevado del Ruiz volcano belched smoke and rumbled ominously Friday, causing more terror as helicopters lowered ropes to rescue survivors stranded in a muddy wasteland created by a catastrophic eruption feared to have taken up to 20,000 lives.

Rescuers, working hastily to avert an epidemic, began dumping into mass graves the thousands of victims--many of them unidentified--of the subterranean explosion Wednesday night that unleashed deadly torrents of mud and water.

Mud-covered survivors--believed to number 20,000--were taken to hospital tent camps. Under the threat of more mud slides and flooding, helicopter crewmen lowered ropes to pluck them from treetops, roofs and hills.

Caldas state government authorities Friday issued an alert warning that the sputtering volcano could loosen a huge chunk of ice and trigger a major avalanche.

‘Huge Block of Ice’

“This is to alert the residents of the riverside zones of the Molino, Claro and Chinchina rivers to take security measures,” the warning said. “There is the potential danger of a new avalanche because a huge block of ice is about to fall off.”

International relief began arriving in Colombia. In Washington, President Reagan announced that the first U.S. aid, including helicopters, was on its way to help Colombia “in this hour of need.”

Volcano Exploded

The 17,716-foot volcano, about 100 miles west of Bogota, exploded at 11 p.m. Wednesday. Heat from the blast melted ice and snow that covered the mountain, sending rivers of water and mud roaring through nearby towns.

Officials said the melting snow and ice caused little damage close to the volcano, but gained force as it moved down the Chinchina, Lagunilla, Guali, Cloro and Molino rivers, sweeping away trees and obliterating several towns.

Fear spread early Friday when residents near the volcano felt a strong tremor and spotted heavier smoke rising from its crater.

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

Toll Could Rise

The Colombian Red Cross estimated that the eruption may have killed as many as 20,000 in Armero--the hardest-hit town--and in surrounding towns. Health Minister Rafael de Zuburia also said the death toll could rise to 20,000.

U.N. Disaster Relief Organization officials said “4,000 bodies have already been recovered and the eventual death toll may reach 15,000 in the town of Armero.”

In Armero, once a town of 45,000 people 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 of Armero who fled to Mariquita, 18 miles to the north, and took refuge in a treetop.

‘Camp Sancto’

Red Cross officials said it probably will be necessary to declare devastated Armero “ campo santo ,” or “holy ground,” allowing many of the dead to remain buried where they are.

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

About 10,000 injured were being flown in helicopters to four hastily constructed tent hospitals near the towns of Mariquita, Lerida and Guayabal, civil defense officials said.

Walter Cotte of the Red Cross said many of the dead were buried in mass graves without attempts at identification because rescue workers had neither the means nor the time to take photographs or fingerprints.

‘Lost in the Mud’

“It will be impossible to identify many of the dead,” he said. “In fact, many bodies won’t ever be recovered because they’re lost in the mud.”

Civil Defense spokeswoman Aura de Leyva said, “We have to bury the dead quickly or there will be an epidemic.”

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

Red Cross officials said thousands of survivors stranded in trees and in the mountains had not eaten or slept since the disaster. Many had to be lifted out by ropes because the rescue helicopters could not land in the thick mud.

Requests for Relief

Radio stations broadcast requests for food, medicine, clothes and mattresses as international aid arrived to supplement a national relief effort. Drinking water and gasoline for rescue vehicles were in short supply.

Twelve Panama-based U.S. military helicopters bearing medical supplies and medical personnel flew to the Colombian Air Force Base Palenquero at Cali, 93 miles south of the disaster area.

A network of ham radio operators that began transmitting after the volcano erupted urged the 300 residents of the town of San Jorge to evacuate their homes because the Lagunilla River was rising. Officials already had evacuated low areas of Mariquita to avoid possible flooding from the swollen Guali River.