Lava flows nearing 6-km danger zone boundary [Mayon volcano]

[A_flyer]

Rebels hit troops aiding evacuees

The Manila Times - August 10, 2006

New People’s Army guerrillas have attacked an Army unit evacuating residents from the slopes of the Mayon Volcano, the military said Wednesday. Five members of the unit were wounded Tuesday when the NPA fired rocket-propelled grenades at their camp near Daraga close to the slopes of the rumbling mountain, it said.

“Army commanders in the area have condemned this inhumane and terroristic activity by the NPA which was conducted at a time when affected civilians need more help and support to alleviate their impoverished situation,” Maj. Ernesto Torres, the Army spokesman, said in a statement.

The 7,400-member NPA has been waging a decades-long Maoist insurgency in the area.

They observed a de facto ceasefire in the region earlier this year when the Bulusan Volcano, 75 kilometers southeast of Mayon, expelled ash
clouds that triggered a brief evacuation of nearby villages earlier this year.

No ceasefire is in place around Mayon.
--AFP

[A_flyer]

Mayon evacuees swamp temporary shelters

The Manila Times - August 10, 2006

The government on Wednesday announced it had evacuated practically all the 39,000 people threatened by the imminent eruption of Mayon Volcano in Albay.

As evacuation centers around the volcano began to fill up, concerns were raised about inadequate facilities, sanitation and food supplies.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council said nearly 30,000 people living in 23 barangays within the volcano’s 8-kilometer danger zone have been moved out.

The barangays are in the cities of Legazpi, Tabaco and Ligao and the towns of Daraga, Malilipot, Camalig, Santo Domingo and Guinobatan.

Thirty-four centers have been set up to shelter the evacuees, the NDCC said.

In one center, the Bagum*bayan Elementary School in Legazpi, there are not enough toilets for the people who came from Matanag village.

Elena Ador, 48, was worried that the toilet shortage was forcing some of the evacuees to throw their waste in the garbage bin or relieve themselves behind the classrooms.

Salome Agao, 61, shares a classroom with 100 other persons. She looks after her 2-month-old granddaughter May Aperin and two other grandchildren.

“We’re congested and can’t sleep well. Children are crying because of overcrowded surroundings,” she said.

On Monday night the city government distributed four kilos of rice, two cans of sardines, corned beef, two noodle packs, 25 grams of coffee and one-fourth kilo of sugar to every family in the center.

Loreta Jordeliza, 37, who brought her five children with her, told The Times the supply was good for only three days and not enough for a big family like hers.

Thousands of villagers living near Mayon are periodically driven from their homes when the volcano acts up and taken to government schools to wait it out.

As many as 77 people farming the slopes died during a 1993 eruption and now the government evacuates people whenever a hazardous eruption seems imminent.

In the latest case, Mayon began oozing lava in mid-July and on Monday there were several powerful ash explosions—causing volcanologists to demand a mandatory evacuation.

Often, as many as 50 people are housed in one classroom, sleeping side by side on cold floors and surviving on daily rations doled out by government social service agencies.

Even as the villagers shelter in schools, administrators try to carry on with classes as normally as possible.

“Each room is really overcrowded,” said Helen Garcia, an official of Albay Central School who now doubles as assistant coordinator for disaster relief.

Teresita Aynera, principal of Gogon Elementary School, said she is sheltering 3,179 people in 25 classrooms. “They almost use all the rooms including the infirmary and the clinic,” she said.

Gogon is actually one of the better evacuation centers. In anticipation of large numbers of people, the local government installed public toilets, communal kitchens and hand pumps for water.

On the teeming school grounds, half-naked babies and women doing laundry mix with schoolchildren in white and blue uniforms.

The villagers at the evacuation center are almost exclusively women and children. Despite government orders that no one be allowed into the danger zone, the menfolk return home every morning to farm and safeguard their belongings.

Although the city has enough money for such calamities, this could be depleted if the situation lasts for weeks or months, officials warn.

It costs about P367,000 a day to feed and house the estimated 10,802 people sheltering in Legazpi’s schools.

Renato Solidum, head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, says Mayon’s eruptive phases usually last for one month. Even if the volcano calmed down now, it would take two weeks before they can decide if it is safe to send people home.

Despite the periodic upheavals, many residents would not consider moving away permanently from their communities near Mayon, which benefit from the fertile volcanic soil. Most resisted a government program to resettle them years ago.

“This is where our livelihood is, our farms, our rice and vegetables,” said Mercy Agao. “The land is very fertile. Where else can we find such a livelihood?”

On Wednesday Phivolcs noted an “anomalous” drop in Mayon’s tremors and gas emissions.

Solidum said volcanic quakes decreased from 109 to only 21 and sulfur-dioxide emission also decreased from a high of 12,745 tons a day to 7,829 tons.

He said, “The large swings in activity, along with the recent explosions, indicate the variability of the conditions of the magma system inside the volcano, and also reflect the high prevailing unrest.”

Solidum said that despite the pause in Mayon’s activity, alert level 4 remained around the volcano.

He said they were advising stragglers to clear out from the volcano’s extended danger zone.
--Rhaydz B. Barcia, Mark Ivan Roblas, Anthony Vargas and AFP