Mayon spews ash; evacuation readied

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines – Mayon Volcano in Albay shot up an ash plume about a kilometer above its crater before dawn yesterday, blanketing villages in Ligao City and two towns and prompting preparations for evacuation in case it erupts again.

Chief government volcanologist Renato Solidum said alert level 2 remains at Mayon, which means increasing unrest of magmatic origin may eventually lead to eruption.

Solidum said there are no immediate plans to raise the alert level, although he advised residents to be ready to leave their homes if the need arises.

Alex Baloloy, resident volcanologist of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) at the Lignon Hill Observatory here, said the ash explosion was preceded by a three-minute harmonic tremor and rumbling sounds accompanied by incandescent rocks.

Baloloy said the ash explosion with incandescent rock fragments was visible in Barangay Lidong in Sto. Domingo, and Barangays Tumpa and Anoling in Camalig, all located within Mayon’s six-kilometer permanent danger zone.

Based on their ocular inspection, Phivolcs personnel found up to one millimeter of ashfall in Barangays Tumpa in Camalig; Travesia, Maipon, Masarawag, Doña Tumasa, Muladbukad Grande, and Pequeño in Guinobatan; and Nabonton and Nasisi in Ligao City.

Light ashfall was also reported as far as 40 kilometers away from Mayon, particularly in Polangui town.

Solidum said minor ash emissions were also recorded at around 7:02 a.m. and 12:20 p.m., with the plumes extending 200 to 300 meters from the crater and drifting toward the southwest and northwest.

“Compared to the two past explosions since we placed Mayon under alert level 2, this one was more powerful, lasting three minutes,” Solidum said, referring to the ash explosions last Sept. 15 and Oct. 28.

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda ordered residents who went back to till their farms within the volcano’s danger zones to evacuate immediately, as disaster control officials and volcanologists feared the ash explosion at around 1:58 a.m. yesterday could be a prelude to a hazardous eruption, as what took place in 1999 to 2001.

Salceda also ordered the distribution to the barangays of 1,000 units of wireless public address systems, including megaphones, to be used in issuing warnings to the residents.

Cedric Daep, chief of the provincial Public Safety and Management Office, said they ordered the setting up of checkpoints around Mayon to prevent any human activities within the six-kilometer permanent danger zone and up to the seven-kilometer extended zone in the southeast.

“We ordered the residents within the permanently declared danger areas, including those within the extended zone, to move to (within a distance of) eight to 10 kilometers from the crater of Mayon,” Daep told radio interviews here.

Daep said farmers in Barangay Anoling in Camalig and Barangay Miisi in Daraga have voluntarily left their farms on Mayon’s upper slopes. – With Celso Amo and Helen Flores