Landslide hits town in Albay

LEGAZPI CITY—A village in a town in Albay that authorities said sat on a danger zone had been hit by a landslide at the height of Tropical Storm “Amang.”

A top official of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) said heavy downpour brought by Amang softened the topsoil of a mountain above the village of Nagutgot in Manito town, causing the eroded materials to slide down to a distance of 2.4 km.

Arlene Dayao, geosciences division chief of the MGB, said even if houses in the village were far from the mountain slopes, they were still prone to the flow of eroded soil.

Dayao and other disaster officials conducted an aerial survey and found a big volume of water and debris that flowed from the mountain slopes toward 70 hectares of farmland in part of the village.

Dayao said the MGB’s disaster risk maps had shown the village to be at “high risk” to landslide and mudflow.

The landslide area, she said, is within the Pocdol mountain range, site of nine inactive volcanoes which could explain why the area is rich in geothermal sources of energy. Mar S. Arguelles, Inquirer Southern Luzon