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SIMULTANEOUS TWIN DISASTERS ROCK EL SALVADOR.

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Attacks from above and below have sent El Salvador careening off course as the country looked forward to benefiting from a favorable outlook in coffee, sugar, and other commodity prices. Ilamatepec volcano, also called Santa Ana, erupted for the first time in 100 years, puking hot rock, boiling mud and water, toxic smoke, and ash 16 km into the sky and down its slopes to engulf the countryside. Thousands of people fled, some died, leaving villages and flimsy houses abandoned. All this under torrential rains spun off by hurricane Stan that have drenched the country for days and contributed to a mudslide that caused deaths and impeded rescue attempts.

Ilamatepec, at 2,381 meters, is the highest point in El Salvador. It last erupted in 1904. It had been rumbling since mid-August, but quieted just before erupting, taking the country by surprise. More than 20,000 people live in its immediate environs, 2,250 of whom were immediately evacuated as it began to expel magma toward the town of San Blas and shoot blazing red rocks ranging from the size of a football to the size of a car skyward. Boiling mud avalanched from a crater lake into the hamlet of Palo Campana, 2...

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