Over 200 families to remain in shelters amid lava threat from Mayon

DANGEROUS FLOW Continuous lava emitted by Mayon Volcano at the Bonga gully is visible in this photo taken on Sept. 24 at Barangay Bonga in Legazpi City. —JOHN MICHAEL L. MANJARES/CONTRIBUTOR

LEGAZPI CITY—More than 200 families must remain at evacuation centers in Camalig town of Albay province because their homes still face the threat of lava flow from Mayon Volcano in spite of its “decreasing signs of restiveness,” local officials said on Friday.

Camalig Mayor Carlos Irwin  Baldo Jr. had allowed the residents of the villages of Quirangay, Tumpa and Sua to return home by Saturday but advised 262 families (1,035 individuals) in Barangay Anoling to stay put in their shelter.

The Albay provincial government had earlier ordered evacuees living inside the 6-kilometer permanent danger zone (PDZ) of Mt. Mayon to “decamp” as the restive volcano, while still under alert level 3, has started to quiet down.

But Anoling residents with homes within a 5-km radius were told that lava and pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) were still likely to happen and it was “still dangerous for them because they are the nearest population to the crater” and “if the volcano erupts and you are inside the 5-km zone, it would be hard to escape,” Baldo said in a Friday telephone interview.

The mayor added: “[Anoling residents] are vulnerable. The village is also close to the Mi-isi channel where lava flow is still continuous.”

The evacuees now sheltered at Anoling Elementary School will be transferred to the Camalig Bungkaras Evacuation Center, a government-owned facility in Barangay Bongabong, the mayor said.

Alert level 3

On Thursday, Albay Gov. Edcel Greco Lagman ordered the decampment of 2,441 families (8,763 individuals) who were still in evacuation centers in the cities of Tabaco and Ligao and in the towns of Camalig and Malilipot.

The Camalig government ordered the mandatory evacuation of residents inside the PDZ on June 8 after the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) raised alert level 3 because of Mayon’s activity.

Paul Karson Alanis, resident volcanologist of Phivolcs in Legazpi City, said by phone on Friday that they still recommend that the PDZ remain off-limits to people due to the danger of lava flows, rockfalls and other volcanic hazards since “the activity [of the volcano] is still continuous, and [Mayon] is still under alert level 3.”

In the past monitoring period, the Mayon Volcano Network recorded 16 volcanic earthquakes, 121 rockfall events and six PDCs or fast-moving flows of ash and debris.

Lava discharges, while still far from populated areas, were still noted stretching some 3.4 km in Bonga gully in Legazpi City, 2.8 km in Mi-isi in Daraga town and 1.1 km in Basud gully in Sto. Domingo.