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Legazpi: The Philippines’ most active volcano was spewing lava down its slopes on Monday, prompting officials to warn tens of thousands of villagers to prepare to flee their homes if the weather is nice. eruption On Monday, officials said a violent explosion was life-threatening.
More than 13,000 people have left poor farming communities within a 6 km (3.7 mi) radius. Mayon The crater is in mandatory evacuations since increased volcanic activity last week. But an undetermined number of residents remain within the Perpetual Danger Zone below Mayon, an area long declared no-go for people but generations have lived and farmed in because they have nowhere else to go.
As the volcano begins to expel lava Sunday night, the high-risk area around Mayon may be expanded if the eruption turns violent, said Teresito Paculcol, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. If that happens, Pakulkul said, people in any expanded risk area should be prepared to evacuate to emergency shelters.
“What we’re seeing now is a berserk eruption,” Bakulkul told the AP. “We look at this on a daily basis.”
From a distance, Associated Press journalists watched pyroclastic flows down the volcano’s southeastern gullies for hours Sunday night. People hurriedly emerged from restaurants and bars in a seaside park in Legazpi, the capital of the northeastern province of Albay about 14 kilometers (8.5 miles) from Mayon, many taking pictures of the volcano, a popular tourist attraction known for its picturesque conical shape. .
Mayon’s renewed turmoil also aroused fear and brought new suffering.
Marilyn Miranda She said she, her daughter and her 75-year-old mother, who had recently suffered a stroke, fled her home in a village within the danger zone in the town of Genobatan on Thursday and sought shelter in a sweltering high school that had been turned into an evacuation center. Every day, she said, her nephew came back to their house, as did the other men in their poor rural neighborhood to guard their homes and farm animals.
From the packed evacuation center, they were horrified to see streaks of bright red-orange lava flowing down Mayon’s slope Sunday night. “We had this feeling our end was near,” Miranda told the Associated Press, tearing up.
The new Mayon eruption was one of a series of tragedies that have hit Amelia Morales and her family in recent days. Her husband died on Friday from an aneurysm and other ailments and she had to hold his funeral in a crowded emergency shelter in Ginopatan because she and her neighbors were ordered to stay away from their community near Mayon.
“I need help burying my husband because we don’t have any money left,” said Morales, 63, as she sat near her husband’s white wooden coffin under a flimsy open tent in a corner of the evacuation center. “I can’t do anything but cry.”
The 2,462-meter (8,077-foot) volcano appeared calm on Monday, with its peak often shrouded by strands of passing clouds. Bakulkul said red-hot lava flows down its slopes but people cannot easily see it under the bright sun.
The volcano was raised to Alert Level Three in a five-step warning system on Thursday, which means the volcano was in a state of severe unrest and a dangerous eruption is likely in weeks or days.
As lava flows gently from the volcano, Bakulkul said the alert level would remain at three, but could be raised higher if the eruption suddenly turns dangerous.
The highest alert, Level 5, could mean a violent and life-threatening eruption is underway with ash plumes shooting into the sky and superheated pyroclastic streams threatening more communities in Mayon’s lush foothills.
Mayon is one of the 24 active volcanoes in the Philippines. It last erupted violently in 2018, displacing tens of thousands of villagers. In 1814, the eruption of Mayon Volcano buried entire villages and reportedly left more than 1,000 dead.
The archipelago is battered by about 20 hurricanes and tropical storms a year, and it sits on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” the edge of seismic faults where most of the world’s earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.
In 1991, Mount Pinatubo north of Manila exploded its summit in one of the largest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century, killing hundreds.
More than 13,000 people have left poor farming communities within a 6 km (3.7 mi) radius. Mayon The crater is in mandatory evacuations since increased volcanic activity last week. But an undetermined number of residents remain within the Perpetual Danger Zone below Mayon, an area long declared no-go for people but generations have lived and farmed in because they have nowhere else to go.
As the volcano begins to expel lava Sunday night, the high-risk area around Mayon may be expanded if the eruption turns violent, said Teresito Paculcol, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. If that happens, Pakulkul said, people in any expanded risk area should be prepared to evacuate to emergency shelters.
“What we’re seeing now is a berserk eruption,” Bakulkul told the AP. “We look at this on a daily basis.”
From a distance, Associated Press journalists watched pyroclastic flows down the volcano’s southeastern gullies for hours Sunday night. People hurriedly emerged from restaurants and bars in a seaside park in Legazpi, the capital of the northeastern province of Albay about 14 kilometers (8.5 miles) from Mayon, many taking pictures of the volcano, a popular tourist attraction known for its picturesque conical shape. .
Mayon’s renewed turmoil also aroused fear and brought new suffering.
Marilyn Miranda She said she, her daughter and her 75-year-old mother, who had recently suffered a stroke, fled her home in a village within the danger zone in the town of Genobatan on Thursday and sought shelter in a sweltering high school that had been turned into an evacuation center. Every day, she said, her nephew came back to their house, as did the other men in their poor rural neighborhood to guard their homes and farm animals.
From the packed evacuation center, they were horrified to see streaks of bright red-orange lava flowing down Mayon’s slope Sunday night. “We had this feeling our end was near,” Miranda told the Associated Press, tearing up.
The new Mayon eruption was one of a series of tragedies that have hit Amelia Morales and her family in recent days. Her husband died on Friday from an aneurysm and other ailments and she had to hold his funeral in a crowded emergency shelter in Ginopatan because she and her neighbors were ordered to stay away from their community near Mayon.
“I need help burying my husband because we don’t have any money left,” said Morales, 63, as she sat near her husband’s white wooden coffin under a flimsy open tent in a corner of the evacuation center. “I can’t do anything but cry.”
The 2,462-meter (8,077-foot) volcano appeared calm on Monday, with its peak often shrouded by strands of passing clouds. Bakulkul said red-hot lava flows down its slopes but people cannot easily see it under the bright sun.
The volcano was raised to Alert Level Three in a five-step warning system on Thursday, which means the volcano was in a state of severe unrest and a dangerous eruption is likely in weeks or days.
As lava flows gently from the volcano, Bakulkul said the alert level would remain at three, but could be raised higher if the eruption suddenly turns dangerous.
The highest alert, Level 5, could mean a violent and life-threatening eruption is underway with ash plumes shooting into the sky and superheated pyroclastic streams threatening more communities in Mayon’s lush foothills.
Mayon is one of the 24 active volcanoes in the Philippines. It last erupted violently in 2018, displacing tens of thousands of villagers. In 1814, the eruption of Mayon Volcano buried entire villages and reportedly left more than 1,000 dead.
The archipelago is battered by about 20 hurricanes and tropical storms a year, and it sits on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” the edge of seismic faults where most of the world’s earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.
In 1991, Mount Pinatubo north of Manila exploded its summit in one of the largest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century, killing hundreds.
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