deleting archive logs, ASM, and SAN

oracle 10.2.0.5
redhat 4.5
on a SAN
using ASM

I have a flash recovery area where I put my archivelogs.

I ran out of archive space, so I logged into RMAN and deleted them. I got an
error that told me I was out of space because I could not log in to the
database. It was about 5 minutes after I deleted the archive logs before I
could log in as anything other than sysdba.

Is this due to ASM background processes or Oracle processes not noticing the
free space? We are on RAW partitions and a SAN. I have been told that when
you delete from a SAN, its not really delete and can take some time for the
delete to take place, but this is inside ASM.

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