Given the continued activity of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano, the Risaralda Departmental Risk Management Council has made the decision to evacuate 16 families and declare a public calamity in the department. Five families from Santa Rosa de Cabal and 11 families from Pereira will be evacuated because they are located within the 15 kilometer perimeter surrounding the Nevado del Ruiz volcano.
The Secretary of Government of Santa Rosa de Cabal will be in charge of the evacuation of the five families from that area with the accompaniment of Risk Management and all the authorities, including Family Welfare to guarantee the safety of minors.
Meanwhile, the Pereira Risk Management director will organize a commission to go to the area where the 11 families are: “Unlike Santa Rosa, (in Pereira) there is no road, it is a road that means some difficulties, for the distance of the location of these families, which leads us to make this decision”, revealed the Governor of Risaralda.
In addition to the evacuation, the access of buses to the San Vicente Hot Springs and the Santa Rosa de Cabal Hot Springs has been prohibited, since the size of the vehicles might create difficulties in the event of an evacuation. Consequently, a commission made up of the Police Commander, the Army Commander, the Mayor’s Office of Santa Rosa de Cabal, the Secretary of Tourism, the Secretary of Government, the Red Cross, Civil Defense and Firefighters, was appointed to visit these two places and define the capacity of tourists in order to avoid difficulties.
“We do not want to take radical measures to prevent tourist access either, but we do want to be prudent in defining the number of tourists to continue accessing this site, to anticipate anytime we have to evacuate and the same flow of tourists prevent us from doing it quickly”, assured Victor Manuel Tamayo Vargas.
Likewise, the Departmental Council determined to declare the public calamity in the department of Risaralda: “In order to make the measures viable and flexible and make decisions on budget matters that need to be done”, said the leader of the Risaraldenses. This with the purpose of being conditioned, in operational, logistical and missionary matters, before a possible eventuality with the Nevado del Ruiz volcano.
