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Guatemala Volcano Toll Rises To 99

By Scott Neuman

Published June 6, 2018 at 2:00 AM EDT

1 of 5 — Lilian Hernandez cries as she is comforted by her husband at the Mormon church that has been enabled as a shelter near Escuintla, Guatemala, on Tuesday. Hernandez lost 36 family members in all, missing and presumed dead in the town of San Miguel Los Lotes after the fiery eruption of the Volcan de Fuego, or Volcano of Fire, in south-central Guatemala.

Lilian Hernandez cries as she is comforted by her husband at the Mormon church that has been enabled as a shelter near Escuintla, Guatemala, on Tuesday. Hernandez lost 36 family members in all, missing and presumed dead in the town of San Miguel Los Lotes after the fiery eruption of the Volcan de Fuego, or Volcano of Fire, in south-central Guatemala.

2 of 5 — A firefighter is seen while he and other firefighters search for their missing colleague in the area affected by the volcanic eruption in Alotenango, Guatemala.

A firefighter is seen while he and other firefighters search for their missing colleague in the area affected by the volcanic eruption in Alotenango, Guatemala.

3 of 5 — Volcanic ash blankets homes and trees near the Volcan de Fuego, where rescue workers gather in the El Rodeo hamlet of Escuintla.

Volcanic ash blankets homes and trees near the Volcan de Fuego, where rescue workers gather in the El Rodeo hamlet of Escuintla.

4 of 5 — Cars are covered in volcanic ash in San Miguel Los Lotes village in Guatemala City on Tuesday.

Cars are covered in volcanic ash in San Miguel Los Lotes village in Guatemala City on Tuesday.

5 of 5 — Mourners carry the coffin of 3-year-old Jenifer Andrea Morales, who died during the eruption, as villagers carry seven bodies to the cemetery in San Juan Alotenango, Guatemala, on Monday.

Mourners carry the coffin of 3-year-old Jenifer Andrea Morales, who died during the eruption, as villagers carry seven bodies to the cemetery in San Juan Alotenango, Guatemala, on Monday.

Updated at 7:30 p.m. ET

The death toll from Guatemala's Fuego volcano rose to at least 99 on Wednesday, with many people still missing, after two strong explosions that scattered ash over a wide area and displaced thousands of residents from their homes.

The scenes of devastation were accompanied by heartbreaking stories of entire families devastated by the disaster — the biggest eruption from the mountain in four decades.

This is Jose. On Sunday, he left his town of El Rodeo #Guatemala said goodbye to his Mother and never saw her again. He lost 9 family members in Sunday’s #VolcanDeFuego eruption including his parents and continues to search for their bodies 3 days later @NBCLatino pic.twitter.com/PAo69zU0ZF
— Annie Rose Ramos (@AnnieRoseNews) June 5, 2018

The Associated Press spoke with Lilian Hernandez, who has 36 family members missing and presumed dead — aunts, uncles, cousins, her grandmother and two great-grandchildren — in the town of San Miguel Los Lotes.

"My cousins Ingrid, Yomira, Paola, Jenifer, Michael, Andrea and Silvia, who was just 2 years old," the distraught and weeping woman told the news agency.

Tuesday afternoon, as ash from the volcano reached 16,000 feet, Guatemala's seismology and volcanology institute warned of a new pyroclastic flow of hot, toxic gases and debris from the volcano, one of the most active in Central America.

Volcanic material was descending the mountain's south side, prompting an evacuation order and the closure of a nearby national highway, the AP reports.

In the aftermath of Guatemala’s Volcano of Fire eruption that roared into the tightly knit villages on the mountain’s flanks, entire families were devastated. https://t.co/LfmmMThcih pic.twitter.com/Z1K6o6GdWQ
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 5, 2018

David De Leon, Guatemala's national coordinator for disaster reduction, said the volcano's increased activity prompted evacuations of nearby communities, an exodus that the AP said was "setting off a panicky flight by people that stalled traffic in some areas."

"We now have an accounting with names and towns where people have gone missing and we have a figure, which is 192 people who we have unaccounted for," Disaster Relief Agency chief Sergio Cabañas told the Agence France-Presse news outlet on Tuesday.