President Bachelet: “The Government is working to deal with the Calbuco Volcano emergency and also the emergency in the north”
After chairing a coordination meeting with various ministers regarding the eruption of Calbuco Volcano, the President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, issued an update on the emergency and confirmed that so far “there has been no significant change to the situation; the ash plume currently measures around 11 kilometers and continues in a north-easterly direction. The characteristics of the volcanic pulse reported early this morning remain the same and are expected to decrease. Therefore, the 20 kilometer radius evacuation zone remains in force.”
President Bachelet has travelled to Puerto Montt to meet with local authorities, accompanied by the Health Minister, Carmen Castillo; the Agriculture Minister, Carlos Furche; the Public Works Minister, Alberto Undurraga; and the Economy Minister, Luis Felipe Céspedes.
“Eleven shelters have now been set up, there are about 50 people at the shelter in Puerto Varas and the total number of people evacuated continues at around 4,150”, the President explained.
She added that “air and ground teams, along with the National Mining and Geological Service, have been dispatched to fly over the affected area and assess the levels of volcanic activity; locate people or families who may be trapped; and investigate reports of a missing person.”
The President confirmed that the evacuation is “mandatory, because our aim is to protect people. One of the things we will investigate when we arrive in the area will be the reasons why people do not want to evacuate.”
With regard to the expenditure that will be allocated to deal with this emergency, the President noted that “we will have to use the resources that are available now and afterwards we will see if we need additional resources.”
The President ended her statement by confirming that “the Government is working to deal with this emergency, the eruption of Calbuco Volcano in the south and we continue working flat out on all fronts to deal with the situation in the north of Chile, in Taltal and in Atacama, given that both situations require us to continue working, until our fellow Chileans can get their lives back to normal.”