MANILA, Philippines — More than 20,000 people living near Mayon Volcano in Albay have moved to safer areas as the volcano continued to spew lava, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council reported Friday.
The NDRRMC said in its latest report that most of the 20,267 evacuees were taken to 27 emergency shelters in the province. Families living within Mayon’s six-kilometer-radius danger zone were ordered to flee their homes after the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology placed the volcano under Alert Level 3.
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Around 38,391 people have been so far affected by Mayon’s unrest, which officials warned could drag on for months.
Mayon’s activities have not yet caused any injuries or death.
The government has provided P57.6 million to assist affected residents.
Phivolcs said that Mayon is “currently in a relatively high level of unrest as magma is at the crater and hazardous eruption within weeks or even days is possible.”
The institute said that the very slow effusion of lava from the crater of Mayon continued to feed lava flows and collapse debris on the southern and southeastern gullies in the past 24 hours.
It also recorded 307 rockfall events, four volcanic earthquakes, and 13 fast-moving avalanches of volcanic ash, rock and gases, known as pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) in the same period.