Not only the Bicol region but provinces around Mayon volcano are watching as the mandatory evacuation of residents within its six-kilometer-radius permanent danger zone or PDZ due to the threat of a “hazardous” eruption is going on.
The Albay Provincial Information Office has said at least 10,578 people living within the PDZ were evacuated Friday morning, after the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology placed Mayon under Alert Level 3 Thursday.
The 2,462-meter high Mayon Volcano, some 500 kilometers southeast of Manila, is known for its perfectly conical shape whose natural beauty has inspired a number of legends and art.
In the event Phivolcs raises Mayon’s status to Alert Level 4—while keeping an eye as well on Taal volcano in Batangas which has shown signs of unrest—around 16,000 to 40,000 residents living within the extended seven-kilometer danger zone will be evacuated.
In Malacanang, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. gave assurance the government is prepared to assist areas that may be affected by the increased volcanic activity of Mayon and Taal volcanoes.
“We are ready. We have been doing that ever since. We watch it very closely, make sure that any of the communities that could be affected are evacuated and are given assistance while they are evacuated until the time that they can return to their homes. It’s the same thing,” the President said.
Albay Governor Grex Lagman has identified the cities of Legazpi, Tabaco and Ligao, and the municipalities of Camalig, Daraga, Guinobatan, Bacacay, Malilipot, and Sto. Domingo as areas vulnerable to Mayon’s increasing unrest.
Lagman, while stressing there is no panic, said the provincial government is set to place Albay under a state of calamity, which will allow authorities to acquire quick access funds to assist affected residents.
Phivolcs said it recorded at least 267 rockfall events and six dome-collapse Pyroclastic Density Currents or PDCs, mixtures of volcanic rock, volcanic ash (pulverized rock, glass, and crystals), and gas that can travel at great speeds, are seen by experts as perhaps the most hazardous events to local areas during explosive volcanic eruptions.
Volcanologists say these hot, ground-hugging flows of ash and debris can travel at speeds of hundreds of meters per second, reaching many tens to hundreds of kilometers from the source
Paul Alanis, Phivolcs resident volcanologist at the Lignon Hill Observatory in Legazpi City, said the rockfall events had duration of one minute to three minutes, and “transported lava debris within a kilometer range of the southern upper slopes.”
Steam-laden plumes, fair crater glow, and incandescent rockfall have also been observed.