Word: colombia
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...private, the Colombian government showed far more concern about the situation. In the second half of October it invited a group of Italian volcanologists to visit Colombia. Their task: to give an opinion on the danger posed by Nevado del Ruiz. The team's conclusions were alarming. Said Franco Barberi, a professor of volcanology at the University of Pisa: "The volcano has certainly not finished its activity. Actually, the worst may be yet to come." On Oct. 22, the Italians submitted a report to the Colombian government warning that an "extremely dangerous" eruption could be expected at any time. They...
...volcano were giving fear little thought. All their efforts were bent on saving the living. Only now and then did they have time to think of the thousands of dead who lay beneath their feet. Giving in fully to the release of grief was a luxury that Colombia could not yet afford. --By George Russell. Reported by Bernard Diederich/Armero and Tom Quinn and Gavin Scott/Bogot...
That vivid eyewitness account could be a description of last week's furious eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia. Yet it was written by a Spanish monk, Father Pedro Simon, who observed on March 12, 1595, the 17,716-ft. volcano's previous major convulsion. The similarities between the two events point up both the always present menace of an active volcano and its lethal unpredictability. Although scientists were convinced that Nevado del Ruiz was due for a major burst, they could not pinpoint the time with sufficient accuracy to allow large-scale evacuation of the surrounding towns...
...continued throughout the spring and summer, and on Sept. 11, ash spewed forth for seven hours, accompanied by a roaring sound and electrical discharges. But for all these red flags, experts were unable to pinpoint when the big boom would come, or even if it would. Lacking that precision, Colombia, perhaps reluctant to disrupt the lives of residents with a false alarm, was unable to act in time. In a heavily populated area, says Gail Mahood, a geologist at Stanford University in California, "if you make a prediction and you're wrong, you could cost billions of dollars...
...Colombia staggered under the impact of Nevado del Ruiz's devastating eruption last week, Mexico was still recovering from its own recent natural calamity. The scars of that disaster were barely evident along Mexico City's elegant Paseo de la Reforma as crowds thronged its tiled, tree-lined sidewalks. Piles of rubble from the country's Sept. 19 earthquake, which killed some 20,000 people and shattered the lives of tens of thousands more, had been bulldozed from the bustling avenue that borders the Zona Rosa, the luxury shopping and sightseeing district. Something akin to normalcy seemed to have returned...