On Friday, at least ten thousand people were evacuated in the Philippines, in the province of Albay, due to the possible eruption of the Mayon volcano, the report to which Phivolcs, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, spoke of “high levels of activity” which make possible a “dangerous eruption” in the next few days.
The people were evacuated after the alert level was raised to 3 on Thursday (on a scale that goes up to 5) and they are those who live within a 6 km radius of the Mayon. The evacuation operations (as well as the autonomous choice of other people to leave the area even though they do not live in the evacuated area) are however complicated by the fact that in the next few days the area could also be affected by heavy rains brought by typhoon Guchol, which is arriving from the Pacific and is approaching the Philippines. Still more people, some of whom live a few kilometers from Mayon’s main crater, still need to be evacuated.
(EPA/FRANCIS R. MALASIG)
Edcel Greco Lagman, governor of the province of Albay, said that in addition to plans in the event of an eruption, plans are also envisaged in the event of landslides or floods: “We will strive to ensure that no one has to die from one of these aggravated disasters,” he said.
The Mayon is a conical stratovolcano, is 2,462 meters high and is located on the island of Luzon (the largest island in the country), about 330 kilometers south of the capital Manila. Due to its shape often presented as almost perfect, it is well known and visited by tourists, although it is an active and dangerous volcano. Its last eruption was in January 2018. Among the many active volcanoes in the Philippines, which are located along the so-called “ring of fire” of the Pacific, it is among those with the most intense activity.
Il Mayon in 2018 (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
