MANAGUA, Nicaragua, JULY 21. – The Cerros Negros volcano, which in the past ten days has spewed hot rock and volcanic ash into the countryside, suddenly erupted with a terrible roar into an eruption today, causing some dead in Leon, thirteen miles away.
Reports from Leon show that nothing can save the city from destruction.
A complete evacuation of the city of 70,000 people was envisaged immediately.
The volcano has erupted in the past 10 days, ravaging about 289 square miles of Nicaragua’s richest farmland and leaving thousands homeless.
The City of Leon’s 70,000 people will be added to those who have been brought out of their shelters by the ashes and thick fog of gas, causing an unpredictable death toll in Leon today.
The 1,731-foot-high cone – thirteen miles northeast of Leon City – threw rocks thousands of meters high into the air as terrified reporters watched from a railroad car near Leon.
In an hour’s ride, reporters saw horses, cattle and other animals die along the tracks.
In the small town of Malpaicillo, out of the danger zone, some 500 semi-nude people have fled the farms and are waiting to be transported to government camps.
The pastures and farmlands for miles around the volcano were covered with inches of black ash, and the sky was darkened almost at night by clouds of smoke.
– New York Herald Tribune, European edition, 22 July 1947.
