
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 21, 1994                   TAG: 9410050066
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: PORT MORESBY, PAPUA NEW GUINEA                                 LENGTH: Short

2 VOLCANOES ERUPT TOGETHER

Rain-sodden ash crushed buildings and trees in the port of Rabaul on Tuesday, while ships picked up thousands of people who fled the simultaneous eruption of two volcanoes.

Thick ash, dense black smoke and poisonous fumes blanketed the area around the city, which is on New Britain island about 500 miles northeast of Port Moresby, the capital on New Guinea.

``You cannot see Rabaul. You cannot see the landscape. You can only see smoke and ash,'' the prime minister, Sir Julius Chan, said after flying over the devastated region.

Most of Rabaul's 30,000 residents and people in nearby villages fled just before the Tavurvur and Vulcan volcanoes erupted on opposite sides of the once picturesque harbor. The eruptions triggered earthquakes and fierce lightning storms.

Officials said communications with Rabaul had broken down and there were fears for a small number of people still in the city.

``Vulcan is blowing its head off on the southern side and Tavurvur is the same on the northern side,'' Peter Sharp, a crew member of a ship that rescued about 2,500 people Monday and Tuesday, told Australian Associated Press by radio.

Scientists expected the eruption to last several more days.

The last volcanic disaster in Rabaul killed 507 people in 1937.

by CNB