A volcano southeast of the Mexican capital spewed more gas and ash into the air on Tuesday as authorities maintained their warning level at one step below red alert.
The only time Popocatepetl volcano triggered a red alert on the government’s traffic light-like system since it came out of decades of dormancy in 1994 was in 2000. The volcano’s last major eruption was more than 1,000 years ago.
The 5,425-foot mountain just about 43 miles southeast of Mexico City and affectionately called El Popo has been burping for days, dusting towns and crops across the state of Puebla in superfine ash.
“If nothing happens, we will worry,” said a cheerful Viridiana Alba, who has been selling flowers in Amecameca’s main square for 25 years. El Popo rises right in front of her stall.
“We know it’s giving off smoke right now, that’s releasing the energy it’s holding,” she said. Ash is still resting on the canopy that shades her plants from the wind that blew her last weekend. The town was rocked by the volcano’s tremors, but as long as the ash remains light, she believes it will help her plants.
Winds have blown a large plume of ash eastward over the states of Puebla and Veracruz and eventually the Bay of Campeche and beyond.
Mexico’s National Center for Disaster Prevention said in its report Tuesday that small domes of lava continued to form in the crater, which were then destroyed by small and moderate explosions. It advised that people living in communities near the volcano are likely to continue these explosions in the coming days and weeks.
No evacuations have been ordered, but authorities have established evacuation routes, prepared some shelters and conducted simulation exercises.
On Cortes Pass, a small highway that crosses a saddle between Popocatepetl and the inactive Iztaccihuatl volcano, a few dozen civil defense vehicles and soldiers blocked the road on Tuesday.
The road was closed to traffic and most of the shacks that attract tourists were empty.
Cástula Sánchez, 75, who sells food to tourists on weekends, was convinced Popocatepetl would settle down and the tourists would return. She lives in nearby San Pedro Nexapa, where lava arrived near her home three decades ago before they could evacuate, but they were spared.
Now she runs a local information service from the back of her store. Residents bring her short messages that she scribbles on a piece of paper and then reads them over a loudspeaker for the entire community to hear. So far, authorities have asked nothing of her, just to keep an eye on things.
In Amecameca, police handed out pamphlets with tips on how to be prepared should the volcano’s activity increase. The pamphlet recommended having important documents on hand, a full gas tank, masks and towels to moisten if residents had to leave in a hurry.
The activity hasn’t been significant to locals this time around, but the local effects could be real for residents on one side of the volcano, while everything is normal on the other side.