Manila — Philippine officials on Friday began evacuating some 10,000 residents living around the country’s most active volcano amid threats of a hazardous eruption.
The Mayon Volcano in the eastern province of Albay, which is known for is perfect cone shape, generated pyroclastic density currents or hot flows of ash and debris as lava domes at the summit collapsed, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).
“Fair crater glow and incandescent rockfall shed from new fluidal lava at the summit of Mayon Volcano were also observed last night,” the institute said in a Friday advisory.
Mayon is at alert level 3, meaning that “it is currently in a relatively high level of unrest as magma is at the crater and hazardous eruption is possible within weeks or even days,” the advisory continued.
According to the Albay province information office about 2,400 families, or 10,000 residents, will have to evacuate the danger zone.
“As much as possible, I want to maintain the zero casualty record of our province, so … I hope we’ll be able to evacuate them to safer places,” Albay Governor Edcel Greco Lagman said during an emergency meeting on Thursday.
Taal Volcano near the capital of Manila has also been exhibiting signs of unrest, spewing voluminous steam-rich plumes that rose up to 3,000 metres above the main crater over the past week.
This has resulted in volcanic smog, or vog, that has affected the health of residents in Batangas province, just south of Manila. Residents were urged to wear face masks for protection.
“In addition, acid rain can be generated during periods of rainfall and volcanic gas emission over areas where the plume disperses, causing damage to crops and affecting metal roofs of houses and buildings,” Phivolcs warned.
<a href=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1seJoUgKgYA” target=”_blank”>Mayon Volcano aglow amid lava flow Thursday night | ANC</a>
Mayon volcano spews white smoke in Legaspi City, Albay province on June 7, 2023.
