7,000 defy Taal Volcano warning

TAAL VOLCANO simmered down yesterday after rattling the area with several dozen tremors and prompting warnings for residents to evacuate.

Nearly 100 families fled, but the rest of the 7,000 residents had so far ignored Alert Level 2 issued by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) declaring the area a danger zone.

Phivolcs yesterday said it had recorded six volcanic earthquakes in Taal in the past 24 hours, a decrease from the 21 tremors the previous day.

At the same time, the water around the volcano, a major tourist attraction in Batangas, has become “slightly less acidic,” with the pH value at 2.84 from 2.82 on March 29. A higher reading of pH value means less gas is being expelled.

The agency said earthquakes and carbon dioxide emissions could increase in the next several days, noting the water temperature in the area rose slightly to 30.5 degrees Celsius from 30 degrees the past day. These indicate a possible “magmatic eruption,” it said.

Phivolcs said the main crater, Daang Kastila Trail and Mt. Tabaro, site of a 1965 eruption, were strictly off-limits, warning that “sudden hazardous steam-driven explosions may occur and high concentrations of toxic gases may accumulate.”

“Breathing air with high concentration of gases can be lethal to human, animals and even cause damage to vegetation,” the agency said.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said the entire volcano island was a “permanent danger zone” and should not be settled.

Taal is one of the most unstable of the country’s 22 known active volcanoes with 33 recorded eruptions, the last one in 1977. The lake surrounding the crater prevented deaths in 1977 and during other eruptions, protecting outlying areas from lava flows.

Senior Superintendent Alberto Supapo, Batangas police director, yesterday said 77 families had been ferried to Talisay and housed at Venancio Trinidad Senior Memorial School. Another 14 families stayed with their relatives.

Jing Segismundo, provincial information officer, said the evacuees are from Sitios (sub-villages) Tabla, Tibag and San Isidro on Taal Volcano Island. Reports from Kristine L. Alave in Manila, Marrah Erika Lesaba, Inquirer Southern Luzon, and AFP