Perilous Times
Warning issued as residents flee Philippine volcano
by Staff Writers
Manila (AFP) Nov 10, 2010
Scores of people fled their homes near a restive Philippine volcano
Wednesday, while authorities advised pilots to avoid flying near clouds
of fine ash shooting out from its crater.
Around 170 people fled several villages at the base of the 1,565-metre
(5,135-foot) Mount Bulusan volcano, the National Disaster Risk
Reduction and Management Council said in Manila.
They are being temporarily housed and fed at the mayor's office in
Irosin town and at a school in nearby Casiguran, it added.
Soldiers and police will also be posted to enforce a six kilometre (3.7
miles) exclusion zone around the crater and trucks are on standby to
take evacuees to government-run shelters, the local Philippine Army
command said.
Bulusan showered nearby communities with ash on Tuesday following
explosions and loud booms, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and
Seismology said in an advisory, adding that it expects more activity to
come.
"Civic aviation authorities must advise pilots to avoid flying close to
the volcano's summit as ejected ash and volcanic fragments from sudden
explosions may pose hazard to aircraft," it said.
Bulusan, 250 kilometres (160 miles) southeast of the capital Manila on
the main island of Luzon, is one of the country's 23 active volcanoes.
People living near streams and valleys in the area were warned that
mudflows of volcanic ash could be triggered by heavy rainfall.
The local government said a quarter million people live in six towns
around the volcano, and many of them could be at risk if the mild
eruption increases in intensity.
Bulusan has erupted 16 times in recorded history, the last time in
2006. It began emitting ash again from November 6.