Evacuees return to Mayon’s 8-kilometer danger zone
“We are just ignoring them…for as long as it is outside the six-kilometer (permanent danger zone)…which was declared no man’s land,” Cedric Daep, chief of the Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office, said.
LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines — As Mayon Volcano continues to simmer down, residents have been allowed to enter the extended eight-kilometer danger zone.
Cedric Daep, chief of the Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office, said some evacuees have been sneaking into their homes in the extended danger zone.
“We are just ignoring them…for as long as it is outside the six-kilometer (permanent danger zone)…which was declared no man’s land,” Daep said.
He said Mayon’s activity shifted from vulcanian or towering ash columns to strombolian, which is characterized only by lava fountaining and lava flow.
“Even if we tell (residents) not to return to their homes yet because Mayon is still under alert level 4, they would just brush aside that advice since they know that the…abnormal activity of Mayon is on a downward trend,” Daep said.
He said it is up to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) and the Albay provincial government if evacuees from the extended danger zone would be allowed to decamp.
Daep said he recently discussed the matter with Phivolcs director Renato Solidum.
At least 17,000 families or 66,000 individuals remain in evacuation centers.
Phivolcs said Mayon’s activity in the past 24 hours was characterized by “general quiescence, gravity-driven lava flow and degassing from the crater.”
At least 127 volcanic earthquakes and nine rockfalls were recorded by Mayon’s seismic monitoring network.
Sulfur dioxide emission was measured at an average of 1,403 tons a day on Friday.
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