National Emergency Office: Evacuation process is "practically complete"

SANTIAGO.- The chief of civil protection for the National Emergency Office (Onemi), Rodrigo Rojas, has deemed the evacuation process to be “practically complete” in Chaiten, the town most affected by the eruption of the volcano with the same name.

Some 10 to 15 people have been taken to the zone of Santa Lucia, located 30 kilometers from Chaiten, where they are currently being sheltered.

Nevertheless, Radio Cooperativa has reported that there are still some 23 civilians who are emphatically refusing to leave the area, as well as an unknown quantity of other people remaining in the town of Santa Barbara. 

Journalists were taken to Puerto Cardenas, some 50 kilometers to the south of Chaiten, a completely abandoned town lying beneath 10 centimeters of compacted ash.  The area is located on the border of the security parameter determined by Onemi.