Evacuation ordered, classes canceled as Kanlaon acts up

DANGER LURKS A screen grab of a footage taken on Tuesday by the Phivolcs’ Canlaon City Observation Station camera shows the active degassing from the summit crater of Mt. Kanlaon on Negros Island. Local governments near the volcano have ordered community evacuations amid the increasing unrest in Kanlaon. —Photo courtesy of Phivolcs

BACOLOD CITY, NEGROS OCCIDENTAL, Philippines —Local governments near Mt. Kanlaon, which straddles the provinces of Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental, have ordered residents to leave the 4-kilometer permanent danger zone (PDZ) due to the imminent threat posed by the volcano.

Mayors Jose Chubasco Cardenas of Canlaon City, Negros Oriental, and Rhummyla Mangilimutan of La Castellana town, Negros Occidental, exercised caution as volcanologists recorded at least 337 volcano-tectonic (VT) earthquakes in the area from Monday night to Wednesday.

READ: 288 earthquakes recorded at Mt. Kanlaon; public advised to be ready

VT earthquakes are generated by rock fracturing, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs). The increase in VT activity strongly indicates progressive rock-fracturing beneath the volcano as rising magma drives a path toward the surface.

Cardenas said he ordered the immediate mandatory evacuation of residents still living within the danger zone in Canlaon City.

The Canlaon City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office was tasked to facilitate the safe and orderly transfer of residents to designated evacuation centers away from the danger zone.

Cardenas said the local government had prepared supplies of food, water, medicines, and other necessities at these centers.

Both Cardenas and Mangilimutan canceled classes at all levels in public and private schools in their respective localities and urged education officials to shift to alternative learning activities to protect students and school personnel from the increasing volcanic unrest.

According to the Department of Social Welfare and Development, its field office in Central Visayas has begun monitoring the preemptive evacuation of at least 88 families (248 people) from three villages in Canlaon City.

Phivolcs has cautioned the public on the “increased seismic activity” and “unprecedented levels of sulfur dioxide degassing” at Kanlaon.

It said earthquakes were generated at a depth of between zero and 9 km beneath the northeastern flanks of the volcanic edifice. The strongest quake was felt at Intensity II in some villages of Canlaon City.

Rumbling sounds were reported by some residents of Bago City while strong sulfur fumes were noted in a few barangays in Bago, La Carlota and Canlaon cities.

Phivolcs reminded the public that alert level 2 (increasing unrest) prevails over Mt. Kanlaon but that current seismic activity might lead to eruptive unrest and an increase in the alert level.

“In case of ash fall events that may affect communities downwind of Kanlaon’s crater, people should cover their nose and mouth with a damp, clean cloth or dust mask,” Phivolcs said. —with a report from Kathleen de Villa