Word: volcanoed
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...avalanche poured down on Armero, it gained additional ferocity from several sources. Three days of torrential rains had greatly swollen the Lagunilla River, which was already choked with mudslides from the volcano's tentative stirrings in September. At that time geologists from the surrounding federal department of Tolima had expressed concern about the dangers from the dammed-up river. At first the departmental governor, Eduardo Alzate García, said that "there are no immediate risks." Two days later he changed his mind. The geologists declared the region at the base of the volcano a local emergency area, and Alzate planned...
...about 1,400) and two other small communities. To the west, on the opposite slope of Nevado del Ruiz, a second avalanche broke loose and headed for Chinchiná, a city of about 34,000. Some 200 families fled the area. Chinchiná, six miles from the base of the volcano, escaped major damage, but civil authorities estimate that 1,090 people died in the immediate area...
...news of the cataclysm spread, Colombia was stunned. President Betancur declared the 77 sq. mi. around the volcano a disaster zone. In Bogotá, long lines of blood donors formed outside the local Red Cross building; more than 10,000 pints were collected in less than 24 hours. Residents of the capital streamed to two major collection spots in the city bearing food, blankets, medicine and clothing. By Thursday morning a caravan of 300 trucks carrying thousands of tons of relief material was headed for Tolima department, a five-hour drive over narrow mountain roads...
...Geological-Mining Investigations (INGEOMINAS) had published a report on Oct. 7 warning of the virtual certainty of a disaster. The report singled out Armero and the village of Chinchiná as threatened sites. As early as Sept. 26, INGEOMINAS had recommended the evacuation of towns at the base of the volcano. But the Colombian Ministers of the Interior, Public Works and Transportation, and Mines and Energy all had taken turns depreciating the danger...
...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 suggested the establishment of a civil defense system in the Lagunilla River valley...