PHILIPPINES MAYON VOLCANO SPEWS LAVA, 8000 MOVED TO SHELTER
Regularly battered by typhoons at this time of year, Lava are cascading down the Philippines’ most active volcano
today as authorities rushed to evacuate thousands ahead of a possible deadly
eruption.
The 2,640-metre (8,070-foot) Mayon, located about 330 kilometers
southwest of Manila, is a draw for local and foreign tourists but an enduring
danger for anyone getting too close.
According to AFP, at least 8,000 of the target 50,000 people
had been moved to temporary shelter. Mostly women, children and the elderly carrying bags of clothes were hauled out of farming villages near Mayon volcano’s slopes on board army trucks and minibuses.
Soldiers went from house to house asking residents to
evacuate, after authorities on Monday raised the third highest alert in a
five-step scale, meaning a full-scale eruption is possible “within weeks”. However, the evacuation operation was sapping
precious disaster-relief funds and manpower in the Albay province.
The volcano’s world-renowned perfect cone appeared to have
been deformed, swollen with lava that had risen from the Earth’s core.
Before dawn yesterday, Mayon’s crater glowed red as molten rocks
flowed as far as halfway down its slopes.
The deadliest and most powerful of the roughly 20 typhoons that batter the Philippines every year happen towards the end of the year, bringing floods, landslides and storm surges to eastern provinces such as Albay that face the Pacific Ocean.
Before dawn yesterday, Mayon’s crater glowed red as molten rocks
flowed as far as halfway down its slopes.The deadliest and most powerful of the roughly 20 typhoons that batter the Philippines every year happen towards the end of the year, bringing floods, landslides and storm surges to eastern provinces such as Albay that face the Pacific Ocean.
Source: AFP.
PHILIPPINE VOLCANO ERUPTS
MANILA, Philippines - Three German tourists and their Filipino tour guide were
crushed to death when one of the Philippines’ most active volcanoes
spewed a giant ash cloud and a hail of rocks on Tuesday, authorities
said.
Up to 20 foreigners and their guides were on the slopes of picturesque
Mount Mayon when it erupted without warning, and rescue workers had been
dispatched on helicopters to search for survivors, officials and a tour
operator said.
- “It rained like hell with stones,” local tour operator Marti Calleja quoted an Austrian woman who survived the ordeal as saying.
- “The rocks that came crashing down on them were as big as dining (table) sets,” he told AFP by phone.
More news...
PHILIPPINE VOLCANO GETS LOUDER, COULD BLOW SOON
LEGAZPI, Philippines – The Philippines' Mayon volcano turned up the heat with lava fountains and loud rumbling sounds Monday, and officials said it was getting closer to a major eruption that could come at any time.Tens of thousands of villagers have been evacuated from the foothills as a precaution, but authorities are having trouble keeping them away from their homes and farms, said Gov. Joey Salceda of Albay province, about 210 miles (340 kilometers) southeast of Manila.
Source: AP
- After a week of puffing out ash and sending bursts of lava trickling down its steep slopes, the 8,070-foot (2,460-meter) mountain overlooking the Gulf of Albay and Legazpi city in the central Philippines switched into high gear Monday with nearly 2,000 volcanic earthquakes and tremors since Sunday, state volcanologists said.
- The emission of sulfur dioxide — an indication of magma rising inside the volcano — jumped to 6,000 tons per day from the normal 500, said the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. It also reported "audible booming and rumbling sounds" in the eastern flank of the volcano, accompanied by intensified crater glow at night.
- Lava fountains bursting from the cone-shaped volcano overnight rose 650 feet (200 meters) in the air, the institute said.
- Scientists raised the alert level Sunday to one step below a hazardous eruption, saying one was possible within days. The only higher level is when a major eruption is already in progress.
- More than 40,000 residents were given sleeping mats and food inside school buildings, gyms and other emergency shelters, but some have still been spotted checking on their farms in the prohibited zone.
- Salceda said about 5,000 more villagers were being transported out of Mayon's danger zone, where scientists said red hot lava flows had reached three miles (five kilometers) from the crater.
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