Ash Covers Area Around Eruption

The Cerro Negro volcano spewed hot ash, steam and 50-pound rocks 1,000 feet into the air Thursday, blanketing the area with what looked like black snow and sending people fleeing with the few belongings they could carry.

The likelihood of an explosive, full-scale eruption from the volcano, located 75 miles northwest of the capital of Managua, was not clear.

But ash from the volcano’s continual belching piled up across thousands of acres of fields and forests and on the roofs of peasant huts.

Trees, shrubs, harvest-ready sugar cane, corn and other crops have collapsed under the weight of the ash. People covered their heads with hats or rags; those on horseback resembled desert Bedouins.

Civil Defense workers struggling to evacuate families at the foot of the 2,200-foot volcano were frustrated Thursday because the heavy ash, dampened by rain, downed tree limbs that blocked roads.

About 6,000 people live in the immediate vicinity of the volcano, which is dumping ash and soil over a 30-mile radius that includes Leon, a city of 150,000 people 15 miles away.

The government on Monday began to evacuate people near the volcano, which rumbled to life Nov. 19 after a three-year lull. It declared a state of emergency in the region Wednesday.

Map of Nicaragua