By KENNETH REICH, Times Staff
Writer
Two Southern
California sisters were among 150 vacationers caught in a sudden
volcanic eruption in Nicaragua, and one of them suffered a broken
arm, according to accounts provided Wednesday by the sisters and
the Holland America line.
At least half
of the tourists who experienced the April 23 eruption, some suffering
cuts and bruises, were reported to be from California. They were
on a one-day land tour off the cruise ship Veendam, which was
docked at San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua.
The eruption
of the Masaya volcano, which has had 44 eruptions, mostly minor,
since 1970, occurred at a moment when passengers of the ship were
at the lip of the crater. Their tour buses were hit by rocks ejected
during the eruption.
Injured was
Stephanie Mason, 29, of Redondo Beach, who stumbled, sprained
her ankle and fell on her right arm, breaking it, as she tried
to get away from a burst of smoke and volcanic ash that threatened
to envelop an observation point.
A spokeswoman
for Holland America said the line flew a crisis counselor to the
ship to comfort the passengers and 28 crew members, who were also
at the volcano. "We were certainly very relieved there weren't
many serious injuries," said Julie Patton of Holland America.
"Most were in the neighborhood of cuts and bruises. A lot
of people were shaken up. Ms. Mason was the most seriously injured."
Mason, who
must wear a cast for six weeks, paid tribute Wednesday to the
ship's doctor, identified by the company as Sidney Schneidman,
of Philadelphia, for "wonderful care." She said he X-rayed
her arm, took digital photos of the X-rays and e-mailed them to
an orthopedic specialist in Texas, who sent him back precise instructions
on treatment.
Mason said
a Nicaraguan tour director she could identify only as "Jimmy"
put himself in danger to ensure everyone was safe. "After
the wind shifted and the smoke blew the other way, he actually
ran to the top of the hill where many of us had been hiking to
be sure no one had been left behind," she said.
Pictures displayed
Wednesday by Mason showed that the parking lot itself is literally
on the lip of the 2,083-foot volcano, just 13 miles from the Nicaraguan
capital of Managua. "When we first arrived, there was sulfur
coming out, not a lot, and they said that was normal," Mason
said. "The buses pulled to within 10 to 15 feet of the actual
crater.
"There's
a little lookout point even closer. We went to the lookout point
and then up a stairway to a further lookout point with a big cross
at the top of a hill. "Almost everyone had walked up to the
cross, when suddenly there was a really big noise and a huge cloud
that filled the crater and started moving higher.
"The
first thing that went through my head was, this looked really
cool. Then, I realized it wasn't cool. Everyone started running
down the back side of the hill, because we were worried about
the smoke and the potential for lava. "A lot of people fell
and had scrapes on their legs. . . . I fell right on a rock. It
was a very steep hill."
Meanwhile,
rocks were falling on the parking lot, where Mason's sister, Danielle
Criona, 31, of Santa Monica, was resting in a tour bus. "I
heard a loud rumbling," Criona said Wednesday. "Before
I could even process what it was, a rock, probably about a foot
long, came crashing through the roof of the bus and landed in
the next seat behind me. "Then the bus driver came running.
The bus was being hit by a shower of smaller rocks, I could hear
them on the roof, and he starting driving the bus forward.
"I started
screaming, 'You can't leave. My sister is up that hill.' But he
was already stopping as we got clear." The scariest thing,
Criona said, "was we had no concept of how big the eruption
was going to be." The U.S. Smithsonian National Museum describes
Masaya as one of Nicaragua's most active volcanoes, with an occasional
lava lake and many overflows of lava. A fourth crater was formed
earlier this year.
The April
23 eruption sent rocks with diameters of up to 20 inches flying
as far as 600 yards. The official report said a number of vehicles
were damaged and, "in the later phases of the explosion,
small quantities of lava and ash were released."
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