/ 9 August 2006

Nearly 40 000 flee erupting volcano

Rescuers on Wednesday raced against time to get stragglers away from the rumbling Philippine volcano Mayon, with nearly 40 000 people so far fleeing the danger zone.

A two-day effort by the military and local government has seen 39 278 people safely evacuated from villages surrounding the scenic mountain, the most active volcano in the Philippines, the provincial disaster coordinating council said.

Relief agencies are bracing for a long stay in makeshift evacuation centres, mainly converted schoolhouses.

“For the time being, food is not the problem,” Legaspi city mayor Noel Rosal said, but appealed for help from the national government. “We can sustain this until the end of the week. The only problem here is congested rooms. We might have to open new rooms so epidemics won’t occur.”

School rooms are housing up to 30 evacuees who sleep on the floor and are fed with tinned meat and instant noodles.

Local officials are experienced in dealing with Mayon, which has erupted about 50 times in the past 400 years, most recently in 1993 when 77 people died. They said the main difficulty is dissuading residents from returning to their homes amid an apparent lull in the volcano’s eruptive phase.

Farmers have been reluctant to abandon their crops and homes, sneaking out of evacuation centres in the morning to work their farms and guard their property.

The civil defence office in Manila said the military and the police have now set up checkpoints on its lower slopes to enforce a “no human activity” zone within 8km of the crater.

Their job has been complicated by communist guerrillas, who attacked an infantry unit evacuating residents near Daraga town close to the slopes of the rumbling mountain, the military said. Five soldiers were injured.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said that after an upsurge of activity on Monday, the 2 460m Mayon was quieter on Tuesday.

From 109 volcanic quakes on Monday, only 21 were recorded on Tuesday. The amount of sulphur dioxide expelled also fell by nearly half. It has been quietly belching out lava since July 15.

However, the institute said such swings in activity are an anomaly and warned that a hazardous eruption could still take place within days.

“Anything above 500 tonnes [of sulphur-dioxide emissions] is an indication” of volcanic unrest, said Ernesto Corpuz, head of the volcano-monitoring division.

Corpuz noted that despite lower readings of sulphur emissions, a column of black, steaming lava is still oozing from the crater and snaking down a channel on its slopes. This indicates lava is still pushing out toward the crater, which has been largely obscured by clouds since Monday.

The volcanic activity may have been lower on Tuesday, “but the overall trend is going up”, he said.

Corpuz added that it is unlikely the volcano will calm down and that a more explosive eruption is on the cards within days.

Renato Solidum, head of the institute, said such swings in readings are “typical of Mayon” and stressed that the institute will not lower the alert level until it sees about a week of lower volcanic activity.

“Given the history of Mayon, it should have exploded already,” Solidum said.

The main danger is not the slow-moving lava that can be seen when the clouds clear, but the possibility of a swift avalanche of volcanic ash that could sweep down the mountain at great speeds during an eruption.

President Gloria Arroyo has appealed to the public to be sensible and ordered local officials to ensure a “zero-casualty” target is achieved.

As many as 70 000 people in the area might have to be evacuated, depending on the force of the eruption, officials have said. — AFP