Thousands evacuated as Chile volcano spews ash

By Ivan Alvarado

CASTRO, Chile (Reuters) - Chilean authorities were evacuating the last of thousands of residents from the vicinity of a volcano in southern Chile on Saturday, as it continued to spew fine ash for a second day after a surprise eruption.

More than 4,000 people have been evacuated from the Patagonian town of Chaiten and its surroundings since Friday, many by boat to the town of Castro on the island of Chiloe, slightly further north and Puerto Montt on the mainland.

Some are now staying in guesthouses, while schools have been turned into makeshift shelters packed with stores of bottled water after the ash contaminated ground water.

Technicians were dispatched to restore phone lines in and around Chaiten and ensure electricity supplies, while experts took water samples.

The National Emergency Office, ONEMI, said volcanic activity continued, with fine ash falling in the area. It said visibility remained poor, with ash clouding the skies, and the smell of sulfur hung heavy in the air in some places.

"The panorama here is pretty complicated," Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma said during a visit to the area. "We have completed the first phase of the operation, which was the evacuation of practically all of the local population."

"We don't know if this is a situation that will last days, or weeks or even more," he added.

Southern Chile is fragmented into hundreds of small islands and fjords. Some residents had never ventured from tiny Chaiten itself until the volcano forced them.