Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano spewed gas, smoke and ash Monday, leading education authorities to suspend in-person classes in parts of three states, a day after the government raised the warning level on the volcano’s activity.
Activity at the 17,797-foot mountain just 45 miles southeast of Mexico City and known affectionately as “El Popo” has increased over the past week. Evacuations have not been ordered, but authorities were preparing for that scenario and telling people to stay out of 7.5-mile radius around the peak.
In Santiago Xalitzintla, one of the communities closest to the crater, alerts and preparation are regular and most people were going about their normal business Monday. An extremely fine ash was falling and was visible on vehicles’ windshields.
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Job Amalco, a driver, said it was normal. “It doesn’t scare us. We’re spectators of what nature gives us,” he said proudly.
But anxiety was beginning to build among some. Florencio de Olarte, 69, and Plácida de Aquino, 72, recalled having to evacuate their home in the center of town twice before years ago. On those occasions, “you could see (the volcano) was lit up, throwing out rocks,” Olarte said.
One of their children already wants them to come to Mexico City, but the couple doesn’t want to leave before authorities tell them they have to, because of their turkeys, pig and donkey. “We have animals and couldn’t leave them,” Aquino said.
“Right now, there’s a lot of smoke plume, and it oozes and thunders, the curtains shake,” Aquino said. But for the moment nothing more.
The volcano’s activity temporary halted flights at the capital’s two airports over the weekend.
On Monday, an ash plume extended hundreds of miles to the east, stretching out over the Bay of Campeche, according to a U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report.
On Sunday, national Civil Defense Coordinator Laura Velázquez said in a news conference that the stoplight-style warning system for the volcano remained on yellow, but had risen to phase 3. Still, she said, “there is no risk to the population at this time.”
In this phase, large domes develop and explode in increasing intensity, launching incandescent rock into the air and pyroclastic flows down its flanks.
Velázquez said only three of the volcano’s 565 explosions since September had been big, and the current activity was not the greatest of this century.
The Defense Department said it was prepared to activate 6,500 troops if necessary. Shelters were being prepared.
Some 25 million people live within a 60-mile radius, most of those in Mexico City’s metropolitan area.
