President Michelle Bachelet toured shelters Sunday packed with evacuees fleeing a major volcanic eruption in southern Chile, as the Chaiten Volcano continued to blast ash into the sky.
Evacuees sought their president's support to rebuild the town of Chaiten outside the path of the like-named volcano, which sprung to life Thursday for the first time in thousands of years. Chaiten neighborhood association leader Lorenzo Maureira was among those suggesting the town of 4,500 should be moved.
But Bachelet said it was too early to decide on relocating the town, located 6 miles (10 kilometers) from Chaiten Volcano, and that experts were working to determine when it may be safe to return.
"Obviously, we'd like people from Chaiten to return as soon as possible, but we know there are still risks and uncertainty about how the volcano will behave," Bachelet said.
Roiling clouds of volcanic ash loomed overhead as Michelle Bachelet briefly visited Chaiten and spoke with a few remaining residents. A plume of ashes spewed by the Chaiten volcano as seen from the city of Chaiten, 1,200km south from Santiago, Chile on Monday. The volcano, which have erupted for the first time, has buried the surrounding region under a blanket of ash and has turned Chaiten into a ghost town, with its 4,000 residents - evacuated to nearby towns and cities - facing an uncertain future.
Police and soldiers patrolled deserted streets to keep looters from stores and homes, while preparations were made to evacuate the mountain village of Futaleufu near Chile's border with Argentina, Bachelet said. Her attempt to reach that village was frustrated by lack of visibility.
Visiting Puerto Montt, the president vowed to provide evacuees with cash subsidies, food, shelter and medical care, though she gave no details and unveiled no specific aid package.
Bachelet vowed to provide evacuees with cash subsidies, food, shelter and medical care, though she gave no details and unveiled no specific aid package.
"The people of Chaiten deserve a round of applause," Bachelet said, praising residents at a local shelter for their orderly evacuation.
Most of Chaiten's residents fled as the initial eruption cloaked their corner of the Los Lagos region with a thick layer of ash — polluting the air and water supply.
Police said Sunday that a 92-year-old woman died of a heart attack aboard a navy boat as she was evacuated.
Some residents already want to go home. "We will rebuild from the ashes," Chaiten Mayor Jose Miguel Fritis promised on Saturday.
Experts estimate that Chaiten last erupted at least 9,000 years ago.
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