LEGAZPI CITY, Sept. 16 (PNA) — The chief of the Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office (APSEMO) said Albay might be facing a complex disaster if the restiveness of Mayon volcano would be accompanied by heavy rainfall during this typhoon season.
APSEMO chief Cedric Daep said that a 60-millimeter precipitation would carry volcanic materials to low-lying areas should a heavy rainfall, side by side with a volcanic eruption, occur here.
“It Mayon erupts amid bad weather situation, at 60-mm-per-hour rainfall, lahar flows may occur — so this is a complex disaster and we need to evacuate about 500,000 people,” Daep said during the emergency meeting Tuesday of the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council presided by Office of Civil Defense Bicol Regional Director Bernardo Alejandro and Governor Joey Sarte Salceda, head of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council, at the OCD regional office here.
With the heightened unrest of the Mayon volcano, Salceda enforced the forcible evacuation of 10,657 families living within the six-kilometer-radius permanent danger zone as the volcano may erupt any moment after the magma buildup was observed to be getting stronger as it ascends towards the crater.
The forcible evacuation is meant to achieve the zero-casualty goal of the provincial government.
If evacuation would include those in the 7-8 extended PDZ, it would involve a total of 36,576 people.
Salceda has also placed the towns of Sto. Domingo, Daraga, Camalig, Guinobatan and Malilipot, and the three cities of Legazpi, Ligao and Tabaco under a state of calamity so that the concerned local government units can utilize their calamity funds for disaster response.
The Department of Education in Bicol has allocated at least 999 school classrooms intended for the evacuees.
Salceda said evacuees should be given superior rights as the basic doctrine of the province during disasters.
“We respect education but more so the evacuees as we want to give them human dignity as a fundamental right of the displaced people in times of natural calamities,” he said.
Army Col. Raul Farnacio, commander of the 901st Infantry Brigade, allocated 50 trucks to be used for forcible evacuation of the people.
The Philippine National Police in Bicol headed by Chief Supt. Victor Deona led the evacuation on Sunday night of families in Guinobatan town.
There is an ongoing evacuation of families living within the 6-km-radius PDZ in Barangays Tandarora and Maninila in Guinobatan.
Expected number of evacuees are: Tandarora – 299 families and Maninila – 334 families.
The RDRMMC led by Alejandro, Salceda and Air Force Lt. Col. Luis Angeles conducted an aerial survey shortly after the joint RDRRMC and PDRRMC emergency meeting to check on the presence of the people within the PDZ.
As of this writing, presence of farmers tilling their farmlands was uncovered by officials within the PDZ, and they could be subjected to forcible evacuation to ensure no single life will be lost to volcanic eruption here.
“Our principle is zero casualty, evacuation not rescue. Protection of life first, property second, team play not individual play,” Alejandro said.
On Sunday, the Phivolcs hoisted Mayon alert status from level 2 to level 3 following an intensified unrest of the volcano.
Phivolcs resident volcanologist Ed Laguerta said that an escalation of unrest was recorded by the volcano monitoring network since 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. with 39 rockfall events, which are ascribed to the incipient breaching of the growing summit lava dome across the southeastern crater rim, and 32 low frequency volcanic earthquakes that indicate magma intrusion or volcanic gas activity have been detected.
Crater glow has become observable, indicating incandescence of the crater from molten lava and hot volcanic gas.
This means that Mayon is exhibiting relatively high unrest, that magma is at the crater and that hazardous eruption is possible within weeks.
“It is therefore recommended that the 6-km-radius PDZ around the volcano and the 7-km EDZ on the southeastern flank be enforced due to the danger of rockfalls, landslides and sudden explosions or dome collapse that may generate hazardous volcanic flows,” Laguerta said. (PNA)