Ashfall threatens farms around Mt. Bulusan

DECEPTIVE CALM Mt. Bulusan is not as calm as it looks in this photo taken in Irosin town and posted on Thursday by the Sorsogon provincial government. Residents in the towns located at the foot of Bulusan have been warned of its possible eruption as alert level 1 was raised over the volcano on Thursday. —PHOTO COURTESY OF SORSOGON PROVINCIAL INFORMATION OFFICE

LEGAZPI CITY—Farmers around Mt. Bulusan in Sorsogon province were advised by authorities to harvest their vegetables, high-value crops and fishery products early to avoid being damaged by ashfall as the volcano continued to show signs of possible eruption.

Leo Tabing, municipal agriculturist of Juban town, said the residents were also asked to look for safe places where they could evacuate their farm animals.

“During the worst-case scenario, the livestock would be evacuated to the dairy farm in Sorsogon City,” he told the Inquirer in an interview on Friday.

About P100,000 worth of tilapia were lost to a fish kill in a fishpond in Juban during the June 5 eruption of the volcano, while over P1.8 million worth of crops were also damaged in the entire province.

During that time, at least 30 farm animals were also evacuated in the Juban’s villages of Puting Sapa and Buraburan, areas mostly affected by the heavy ashfall.

Tabing said they were preparing to distribute sacks of rice and medicine for the farmers’ livestock.

Bulusan danger zones

Arvee Lodronio, head of the municipal disaster risk reduction and management, said they have already asked village officials to prohibit farmers from entering the danger zones of the volcano.

“Since last week, we advised them to stop the agricultural activities and start the profiling of affected farmers for the distribution of assistance,” Lodronio said.

Lodronio said they activated the Incident Management Team for Bulusan Volcano on Thursday and village officials were told to strictly monitor the four-kilometer-radius danger zone of the volcano.

Sacks of rice for 1,000 families were also prepared for distribution to the evacuation centers that would accommodate the affected villagers.

In its 8 a.m. bulletin on Friday, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) detected 164 volcanic earthquakes in the past 24 hours.

Moderate plume emissions reached 400 meters high, drifting east-southeast, it said.

Phivolcs raised the alert level 1 on Wednesday, which indicates a possibility of steam-driven or phreatic eruptions. INQ

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