page_title: Yepocapa
section_title: 1974 Volcán de Fuego eruption
hierarchical_section_title: Yepocapa / History / 1974 Volcán de Fuego eruption
caption_attribution_description: English: Pyroclastic flows sweep down the east flank of Volcán de Fuego — in October 1974, Guatemala. One of the largest historical eruptions of Volcán de Fuego. Ash clouds rise off the base of the pyroclastic flows, which traveled up to 7 km from the summit at estimated average velocities of 60 km/hr. The travel direction of pyroclastic flows is influenced by topography. The denser basal portion of the pyroclastic flows follows topographic lows on the flanks of the volcano — note a smaller pyroclastic flow descending a gully at the right.
context_page_description: Yepocapa -also known as San Pedro Yepocapa is a town, with a population of 17,021, and a municipality in the Chimaltenango department of Guatemala. It is located at the bottom of Volcán de Fuego, which has destroyed the town several times, the latest on 14 October 1974.
context_section_description: On 15 October 1974, tremors woke up people in the settlements surrounding the Volcán de Fuego at 2:00 AM, followed by rumbling and cinders and ashes falling from the sky, which submerged the town into darkness for a few days. President Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García gave order to evacuate people, most of whom were sorry about losing all of their belongings after the eruption; in the meantime, ash was travelling as far away s the Mexican states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, to the point that Mexican authorities were on alert due to the amounts of it that they were getting.
  San Pedro Yepocapa was one of the most impacted towns, ending under more than 1m of ash after the four days that the eruption lasted; approximately 1100 people from Morelia hacienda and annexes had to be evacuated to temporary shelters in neighboring Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa, Escuintla or Patulul, Suchitepéquez.
  Democracia Cristiana Guatemalteca —DCG— directors -then the main opposition party in the country after losing the presidency to Laugerud Garcia in fraudulent elections earlier that year , asked to all the mayors to help their colleagues from San Pedro Yepocapa and Acatenango, which were practically destroyed by the catastrophe; those two mayor belonged to DCG .  Help began to arrive on 24 October 1974, when the eruption ceased and equipment from the Road General Direction of Guatemala arrived to the towns to clean them up, and operation that lasted three months.
caption: The 1974 Volcán de Fuego eruption partially destroyed San Pedro Yepocapa.
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