Jittery Albay folk mistake thunder for eruption

SMOKE from Mayon Volcano continues to paint an ominous picture with a picturesque backdrop as some villagers wait for the day they can leave government shelters to return to their normal lives. MARK ALVIC ESPLANA/INQUIRER SOUTHERN LUZON

GUINOBATAN, Albay—A rumbling sound due to a thunderstorm sent residents living around Mayon Volcano here scampering for safety on Wednesday, thinking it was an explosion from Mayon.

Melchor Morales said he was feeding his rooster when he heard a loud sound similar to that of falling rocks between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. in Barangay (village) Masarawag.

He said he immediately looked at Mayon to check if it had exploded but saw only grayish, thick smoke coming out of the crater.

Masarawag is inside the 6-kilometer permanent danger zone that is off limits to habitation.

But Morales, like other evacuees staying at the temporary shelter in the town proper 12 km from Mayon, returns to his home during the day to feed his animals and check on his property.

Salvacion Ocbian, 79, who was on board a tricycle and heading back to the evacuation center, was convinced the rumblings originated from the volcano.

“It was very loud. After the sound, the ground moved and I saw fire from the crater,” she said, trembling.

The other passengers of the tricycle insisted that what they heard was different from the sound of thunder.

Alex Baloloy, volcanologist of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) based at the Lignon Hill observatory station here, said what the residents heard was thunder.

He said heavy rain occurred in Santo Domingo town between 7:30 a.m. and 8 a.m.

Santo Domingo Mayor Herbie Aquas said the town, indeed, experienced a thunderstorm that lasted for 30 minutes.

Anjanette Vahlois, a staffer at the Legazpi weather station of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration,   said in a text message that there were thunderstorm clouds in the area between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m.

Phivolcs, in a bulletin on Wednesday, recorded no volcanic quake and observed a faint crater glow on Tuesday evening.

Two lava flow events occurred on Mayon on Oct. 12 and 19 but these stopped, which Phivolcs said was an indication that pressure inside the volcano is still not strong enough to push magma out of the crater.