Solon reminds Mayon-affected folk to prepare anytime to evacuate
By Justine Rich Talusan
ALBAY Rep. Joey Salceda reminded the people living within the 7-8 km. danger zone of Mayon Volcano to prepare to evacuate.
This after Mayon Volcano spewed hot volcanic particles and gases on Friday night.
According to Salceda, the heightened Mayon volcanic activity means evacuation within the seven to eight-kilometer danger zone should be ready.
He said full evacuation of 30,000 more evacuees could take days without more vehicles ready.
According to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), Mayon Volcano on Friday night spewed hot volcanic particles, with ash fall reaching Tabaco City.
Phivolcs said the pyroclastic density current (PDC) lasted some four minutes and traveled around three to four kilometers downslope.
The series of PDCs began at 6:09 p.m. on Friday on the Basud Gully, the eastern flank of Mayon Volcano, which is under Alert Level 3.
The occurrence of PDCs led the Phivolcs to issue a notice of “increased activity” on the volcano’s summit crater.
Phivolcs said with the “heightened activity” by Mayon Volcano, residents in the seven to eight – km. danger zone should be prepared to evacuate “at a moment’s notice” and that “mobility assets should be ready as this could take days to complete.”
“At a moment’s notice, at least 8,000 additional families or 30,000 individuals will need to be evacuated. Again, that’s on top of the ones we already evacuated. You could imagine the number of mobility assets we will need to move them,” Salceda said.
“Even with the mobility assets already deployed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines to support evacuation, we estimate it will take threea nd a half days, given time-and-motion calculations,” the solon added.
