Chile Forum

helibel wrote:Ahhhh Thank you Vicki, since this thing started I have the DGAC and Volcanism blog almost as wallpaper and I tell everyone, who comes in my office and says"watts that?' I have a good "Friend" in Futa and I worry about her. I saw that post within 4 minutes of it going up. As I told Vicki in a PM the good good news is that if Futa is getting this "honor" it means the "big boys" believe Futa is safe, Yeah!!!!!

I wonder about a port,though, will they still use Chaiten or build a new one somewhere?????

Interesting you mention the port. I predicted the probability that Futa would be the Prov. Capital. Not that Chaiten would be here, but the capital. I always thought that relocation of people from Chaiten and a town would be different from relocation of the Provencial Capital. Now...here's my next prediction...Raul Marin Balmaceda will be the new port if it isn't in Chaiten. I say this because there are no major roads north of Chaiten connecting that area to the rest of the provencia. And if the volcano continues to be unpredictable, it makes no sense to move the port north. South of Chaiten....the next port would be Raul Marin Balmaceda...a protected port with a newly built road which appears to be constantly improved, along with new bridges. A ferry runs from Raul Marin across Rio Palena then only 70 kilometers to La Junta. There is no other established port north with roads not in affected areas of the volcano, and the next port south is in the next Region (XI) and would be Puyuhaipi or Puerto Cisnes, both in Region XI. Chaiten may continue to be a port. But how to support a port area without warehouses, diesel pumps support services on a full-time basis with no assurances of continuity? We'll see!

There was some chit chat a while back in one of the papers about the port inside Pumalin where Tompkins has his ferry landing. He was even interviewed and seemed to inviting the idea of some sort of expropriation by the government if they would agree to building some sort of sustainable community inside Pumalin. I believe he was going to close the visitor center inside the park anyway for good.

The Volcano appears to have blown again. It is one oclock in the afternoon and we are in complete, COMPLETE darkness.

Does anyone have links or an update to this? 9000 years since it erupted and now twice since Vicki's been there. I know people are thinking of you Vicki and Greg, please keep us posted.

Chaiten volcano erupts again in southern Chile

26 minutes ago

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Officials say scores of people who had returned to a Chilean town destroyed by a volcanic eruption are being evacuated again as the volcano roars back to life.

The presidential delegate for the region says an explosion has rocked the dome of the Chaiten volcano and sent volcanic material down the mountain's slope, threatening to block a river and cause flooding.

Paula Narvaez said Thursday that as many as 150 people will be removed from the town at the foot of the 960-meter (2,700-foot) volcano.

Some residents of the town have resisted government efforts to move them to a new settlement following a devastating eruption last year.

Harrington's volcano blog...http://volcanism.wordpress.com/category ... haiten/....

Dr. Harrington wrote to tell me it appears to be a sizeable event and he is currently trying to connect to the camera page to see what it looks like there.

We're fine here, just sick at heart. Futa was really making some great progress and the First Annual Kayak/Rafting event was/is scheduled for this weekend.

No way!!!!!!!

The dome collapsed it seems.

We just spent last week helping organize the permits for the concert at the end of the Futa fest, and we where even planning to go ourselves but ran out of time on our trip to the Patagonia.

As some of you know, I went to Chaiten last october to see the destruction the volcano has caused.
We are going back in March and I wonder if Chaiten will still be there.
For those of you that live close to this area, good luck and remember, respect the power of the nature.
About the events in Futa, are you cancelling or postponing or neither.

Regards,
Marcelo

Based on the last images from the camera, it seems the situiation have improved a lot.
The sky is clear now, just like it was in October 2008.

Good luck !
Marcelo

I've spent most of the summer near Futaleufu. Last Thursday, the volcano erupted again and we experienced about an hour of total darkness requiring flashlights at high noon. We also got about 1mm of ash dusted on everything.

Having said that, I am very optimistic about the situation in Futa. Most of the summer was beautiful! We had clear air and sunshine nearly every day. We had a few days when the wind kicked up the ash but overall it was nearly as beautiful as ever. After this latest dusting, the city sent two water trucks around and guys with hoses sprayed off every concrete street in the whole town! They even sprayed off our car with a big grin. They had guys with power sprayers cleaning the ash off the bushes in the plaza. Pretty amazing how fast that had it ship-shape again. So out of the whole summer,we had two days when we needed to wear masks. Not to bad.

The tragedy in Chaiten has actually been good for Futa because the many services, previously available in chaiten, such as a Notary are now available in futa.

The bad news is that they expect this volcano to erupt for a number of years--perhaps 10 years. The dome is unstable and a reliable source told me that a crack has opened up in the valley between the dome and Chaiten that is spewing steam and a little lava.

We visited Chaiten a week before this latest eruption. We have friends there whose house has 5 feet of ash in all the rooms. Its very sad. The government has officially decided not to rebuild the town. The rumor from good sources is that the government will buy all the houses (mandetory) and bulldoze the whole town to prevent lawlessness. There has been an ongoing problem with looting. There is no judge in the region so if they catch someone, they can't lock them up without a judge. So they are getting turned loose again.

Its obvious that they don't have much time to build a new ferry dock. The ash has created a plane that extends for maybe 1/2 mile out into the bay. There is a sad house sitting in the middle that is nearly in tact. It washed out to sea with the flood. The ash is rapidly encroaching on the Ferry terminal. It is rumored that they have nearly completed a new ferry dock near Santa Barbara. However, this latest eruption has raised the question of whether Santa Barbara is far enough away from the volcano should there be a catastrophic eruption. It is only 6km or so up the Caraterra from Chaiten.

There is a dear lady in Santa Barbara that now runs a hospidaje called Patitos. She used to own a grocery store and other stores in Chaiten but nearly lost everything except her home in Santa Barbara. Its a huge two story house with a neat view of the bay.