Alert level raised for volcano near Mexico City!

Millions get ready to evacuate.

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (PNN) - May 22, 2023 - Mexico raised its alert level on the Popocatepetl volcano Sunday following an increase in tremors and explosions of ash that shuttered airports in nearby Mexico City and Puebla.

A panel of experts recommended raising the alert level to “yellow phase three” from “yellow phase two” on the volcano, located 70 km (44 miles) southeast of Mexico City, the country’s head of civil protection, Laura Velazquez, said in a press conference.

The increase leaves a “stoplight” one level away from red. Officials were ordered to make checks on evacuation routes and emergency shelters in case of need, Velazquez said.

The state capital of Puebla was covered by ash for the first time in around a decade and its airport was closed on Sunday.

“We are in a phase of alert, not alarm,” Puebla’s Governor Sergio Salomon said in a video message posted on Twitter. He said evacuations weren’t required but that residents close to the volcano should be prepared.

In-person classes were suspended and will be replaced with distance learning programs in 40 municipalities, including the capital, until further notice, the Puebla state government said in a statement posted on Twitter.

Mexico City’s main airport stopped flights for almost six hours Saturday. Aeromexico said on Twitter there was a “high influx” of passengers at the capital’s airports after the activity of Popocatepetl affected flights. Twenty-nine flights from the beach resort of Cancun to Mexico City and Puebla were canceled during the weekend.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said on Twitter that there was no evidence ash has reached the capital. The city’s metropolitan sprawl, with some 22 million inhabitants in the capital and surrounding State of Mexico, is beyond projected lava flows from a massive eruption.