Flights to and from Buenos Aires' two commercial airports remained cancelled Friday, due to a cloud of ash from the Chilean volcanic Caulle, some 1,600 kilometres away, dpa reported. Seven other airports across Argentina remained closed. A total of 324 domestic flights and 110 international flights had to be cancelled Thursday due to the eruption. In the Patagonian town of Ingeniero Jacobacci, in the province of Rio Negro, the ash caused a "catastrophe," in the words of Mayor Carlos Toro. "It is chaos, a catastrophe, a distressing situation that we would never have imagined ... it will take us a very long time to get back to normal," he said. "Help arrives very slowly, especially in rural areas, where about 700 families live," he said. The supply of firewood, crucial for heating in the late southern hemisphere autumn, and fodder for animals remain the main challenges. In Bariloche, schoool lessons - which had started again Thursday - were again suspended due to the effects of heavy rain falling on the ash. The roof of one school collapsed due to the weight of the wet volcanic matter. Several tons of ash are believed to have fallen onto the Nahuel Huapi lake, the region's largest body of water. Argentine weather authorities hoped that the ash, which is moving north-west at an altitude of 6,000 metres, will leave the Buenos Aires area by late Friday. However, the airports in Bariloche, Chapelco, Esquel, Trelew, Viedma, Neuquen and Bahia Blanca are to remain closed for as long as the Caulle continues to spew volcanic matter. The cloud of ash reached southern Brazil and also led to flight cancellations in Porto Alegre's airport. Flights to Buenos Aires and Montevideo were cancelled across the country.
