100 Villagers Near Restive Mayon Flee Homes

Associated Press, Inquirer
Last updated 07:43pm (Mla time) 07/20/2006

STO. DOMINGO, Albay – (UPDATE) About 100 residents of two villages fled their homes Thursday morning in apparent panic as fragments of lava rolled down the slopes of Mayon Volcano, raising clouds of volcanic ash that strong winds blew toward the town of Sto. Domingo, officials said.

Mushroom clouds of ash shot up into the sky starting around 7:30 a.m. (2330 GMT Wednesday), sending farmers running for safety as parents took their children home from school.

Eduardo Laguerta, from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, said the ash clouds were caused by the collapse and disintegration of superheated lava mounds several kilometers (miles) from the crater of the 2,474-meter (8,118-foot) volcano.

He said anyone nearby could suffocate or be severely burned.

Lava and red-hot boulders have been trickling down Mayon since it came to life Friday in a "mild and quiet" eruption, which could continue for weeks, volcanologists said.

The government has declared a no-go area in a six-kilometer (3.75-mile) zone around the crater, but several thousands still live and farm within the area and cannot be forced out until there is an official mandatory evacuation order.

Romeo Cabria, action officer of the Municipal Disaster Coordinating Council, said the fleeing residents of the villages of Lidong and San Isidro, could have been alarmed by the ash cloud they saw heading toward their place.

He said the residents were brought to the municipal gymnasium but the local government planned to send them back to their homes as the alert level to warrant evacuation had not yet been reached.

"It was not yet the impending major blast,” said Laguerta. “The ash cloud did not come from the crater but from the lava fragments that collapsed downslope."

Seismographs recorded 404 tremors during the past 24 hours compared to Wednesday’s 250, which Phivolcs said can be associated with increasing lava extrusion, rockfalls, and detaching lava fragments.

The sulfur dioxide emission, which Laguerta said is one of the indicators of surfacing magma, was relatively higher than the normal level at 1,863 tons per day yesterday.

Jukes Nuñez of the Provincial Disaster oordinating Council said no evacuation was ordered yet because the alert level remained at three. However, he said, classes were suspended in Lidong and San Isidro because of the feared ash fall.

Farmer Eladio Echaluce, 85, said he was working in his field at Matanag village on the volcano's southeastern slope, when he heard a shout and saw someone pointing to a cloud of ash.

"When I saw the cloud, I got scared and came down," he said.

Another farmer, Loreto Aydaya, rushed along carrying a sack of vegetables and leading his two water buffalos.

"I was scared because I was about a kilometer (mile) away," he said.

School teacher Jenny Perez said parents rushed to the Matanag Elementary School to get their children.

"I could not do anything, so I just dismissed my class," she said.

Other residents packed bags and kitchen utensils and waited on the roadside or inside their homes for village officials' signal to evacuate.

In Lidong village in nearby Santo Domingo town, some residents were told to leave.

Alvin Rodriguez said he was worried that his family, especially his three young children, would be overwhelmed by the ash fall.

Mayon is one of the Philippines' 22 active volcanos. Its most violent eruption, in 1814, killed more than 1,200 people and buried a town in mud. A 1993 eruption killed 79 people.

The Philippines is in the Pacific "Ring of Fire," where volcanic activity and earthquakes are common.

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