Philippines volcano threat growing
Pastor Dale Morgan
Philippines volcano threat growing
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Tuesday, August 8, 2006 Posted: 0334 GMT (1134 HKT)
MATANAG, Philippines (AP) -- The restive Mayon volcano showed more signs
of an imminent eruption Tuesday, belching ash three times overnight as
troops and officials evacuated tens of thousands of villagers.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology raised the alert
to level 4 on Monday after six explosions sent ash columns up to 800
meters (2,625 feet) high and prompted forcible evacuations of about
35,000 villagers in Albay province, southeast of Manila.
Volcanologist Ed Laguerta said Mayon ejected ash at least three times
late Monday and continued to emit abnormally high volumes of sulfuric
dioxide. Instruments detected more than 100 volcanic earthquakes
overnight, mostly unfelt by humans.
"This means there is more magma rising from beneath the volcano,"
Laguerta told The Associated Press.
Gov. Fernando Gonzalez of Albay province, where Mayon is located, said
troops and disaster response teams started evacuating about 35,000
villagers Monday. An additional 20,000 people would have to be moved out
of harm's way in case of a major eruption.
About 80 army trucks and government vehicles ferried more than 15,000
villagers to 34 evacuation centers Monday, and the evacuation would
continue in the next few days, said Glenn Ravalo, an officer of the
Provincial Disaster Coordinating Center.
Despite the mandatory evacuations, many villagers stayed put on farms
around Mayon to tend their crops and livestock while guarding their
homes and belongings.
Officials extended the danger zone to eight kilometers (five miles) on
the volcano's southern side Monday, from seven kilometers (4.3 miles)
earlier.
In Matanag, a farming village of about 1,400 people well within the
danger zone, life looked almost normal. About 600 residents left on
Monday, but many more chose to stay behind. An army truck, a disco beat
blaring from its radio, sat at the village entrance, ready to assist in
a quick escape.
Soldiers, however, dropped a coconut tree across the road to Matanag,
blocking any incoming traffic.
"My mother said that we would not evacuate now unless it's really urgent
and there's a big eruption," 13-year-old Jennilyn Nantes said as she
walked to school. "I'm also nervous but I've gotten used to this
situation. Mayon has been like that ever since I was on the first year
of grade school."
Officials are hoping Mayon, which has erupted at least 47 times in the
last 400 years, would go off quietly. An explosive eruption would
complicate evacuation efforts, although Albay had been known to have
developed one of the country's most efficient disaster response systems,
Gonzalez said.
Mayon is one of the Philippines' 22 active volcanoes. Its most violent
eruption, in 1814, killed more than 1,200 people and buried a town in mud.