Albay sends home 60,000 evacuees from danger zone

LEGAZPI CITY—Some 12,000 families, or around 60,000 people, who took shelter in evacuation centers in Albay province after the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) raised Alert Level 4 over Mt. Mayon last month were sent home on Friday.

The evacuees, representing about 70 percent of the 84,543 people in various evacuation camps, live within the 9-kilometer extended danger zone that was declared by the provincial government as a “buffer zone” when Phivolcs noted lava fountains and an increased number of ash plumes from the volcano on Jan. 22.

Claudio Yucot, Office of Civil Defense regional director, said the “decamping” of the evacuees would decongest the 70 evacuation shelters and as a countermeasure against possible health problems which come with sharing limited spaces in temporary shelters. —MAR S. ARGUELLES AND MICHAEL JAUCIAN