Mount Mayon, known for its near-perfect cone shape in the coconut-growing central Bicol region, has recorded a series of recent quakes and rockfalls, indicating a possible eruption within weeks.
Joey Salceda, governor of the central Albay province, said more than 12,000 people were forcibly evacuated.
"What the alert level 3 did was to fast-track the preparation to evacuate 12,000 families in the 6-8 km extended danger zone," he said.
The evacuees would be housed in temporary shelter for as long as three months, he said. More villagers, facing the southeastern crater rim, would be moved to safer areas if Mayon erupts.
Troops were enforcing the no-go area, preventing people from returning home.
A major eruption is not expected to impact the country's farm output with mostly subsistence farmers tilling the land around the volcano. There is also no major industry in the area.
But an eruption could boost tourism, as happened the last time Mayon erupted in 2009. It has erupted nearly 50 times over the last 600 years.
The most destructive eruption was in February 1841, when lava flows buried a town and killed 1,200 people.
REUTERS
http://www.todayonline.com/world/philippines-evacuates-thousands-volcano-glows-red
16/9/14
Rushed evacuations as Philippine volcano spews lava....
ReplyDeleteLava cascaded down the Philippines' most active volcano on Sept. 17 as authorities rushed to evacuate thousands ahead of a possible deadly eruption.
Mostly women, children and the elderly carrying bags of clothes were hauled out of farming villages near Mayon volcano's slopes on board army trucks and minibuses.
Soldiers went from house to house asking residents to evacuate, after authorities on Monday raised the third highest alert in a five-step scale, meaning a full-scale eruption is possible "within weeks".
Before dawn Wednesday, Mayon's crater glowed red as molten rocks flowed as far as halfway down its slopes.
The volcano's world-renowned perfect cone appeared to have been deformed, swollen with lava that had risen from the Earth's core.
At least 8,000 of the target 50,000 people had been moved to temporary shelters, with the operation expected to run for three days, regional civil defence director Bernardo Alejandro told AFP.
However he said the evacuation operation was sapping precious disaster-relief funds and manpower in Albay province, which is regularly battered by typhoons at this time of year.
"The province can sustain them [in evacuation centres] for not more than a month... we cannot exhaust all our disaster funds on Mayon," Alejandro said.
The deadliest and most powerful of the roughly 20 typhoons that batter the Philippines every year happen towards the end of the year, bringing floods, landslides and storm surges to eastern provinces such as Albay that face the Pacific Ocean.
State volcanology agency director Renato Solidum said more magma was moving up the crater each day, although for the time being the alert level would remain at three. Level five means an eruption is occurring...................http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/rushed-evacuations-as-philippine-volcano-spews-lava.aspx?pageID=238&nID=71815&NewsCatID=356
17/9/14