Bundled in Army trucks, jeepneys and private cars and hugging their dearest possessions, thousands of villagers fled their homes yesterday after one of the Philippines’ deadliest volcanoes blasted out clouds of ash, indicating a major eruption was imminent.

The government ordered the forced evacuation of anywhere from 35,000 to 50,000 villagers after declaring an 8-km zone on the southeast sector of Mount Mayon a “no man’s land.”

Waiting for a truck on a roadside in Barangay Mabinit, one of the most threatened villages, an elderly woman nervously clutched her rosary beads and made the sign of the cross.

Nearby, a half-naked man carried bundles of newly cut firewood on his shoulder. Other men had toddlers in their arms.

“It could just be hours or a matter of two days before a major eruption will occur,” resident volcanologist Eduardo Laguerta told an emergency meeting of the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council.

Whole families clutching sleeping mats, pillows, frying pans, radios, plastic food and water containers and sackfuls of clothes joined the massive flight.

Behind them, mushroom-shaped ash clouds towered overhead.

Megaphone in hand, Mayor Noel Rosal roamed Mabinit, appealing to residents to leave.

One of the country’s 22 active volcanoes, Mayon has had a violent history of 47 eruptions since 1616. Its worst eruption buried Cagsawa town and killed 1,200 people in 1814. A 1993 eruption killed 77 farmers.

‘Hazardous and explosive’

Laguerta gave the grim forecast after Mayon belched ash columns towering from 300 to 800 meters on the 23rd day of its restiveness. More ash ejections were expected during the day.

This prompted the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) to raise the alert one notch higher to level 4, which meant that a “hazardous, explosive eruption” was imminent.

By noon yesterday, authorities expected some 35,000 people, or 6,995 families, to have been taken to 31 evacuation centers.

“I just talked to Governor (Fernando) Gonzales and he said the evacuation is going on smoothly,” Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz Jr., who chairs the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), said in a news briefing in Manila.

Airports normal

Disaster teams have deployed 80 trucks aside from those provided by the military, the police and private groups.

Contingency plans adopted by the government included being prepared for bad weather, which could change the direction of the lava flow, said Cedric Daep, head of the Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office (Apsemo).

Daep said that in case of a major eruption, passage through major roads would not be prohibited unless there was a mudflow.

Even airports will have normal operations unless affected by ashfalls or declared otherwise by the Air Transportation Office, he said.

Some refused to leave

Other officials gave a higher estimate of the number of people that would need to be forced out of their villages.

“More than 50,000 people will be expected to be evacuated,” The Associated Press quoted provincial disaster officer Jukes Nunez as saying. These included people who had ventured back into the danger zone to tend to their crops in the fertile volcanic soil.

Gerry Losentales, an 87-year-old farmer, had refused to leave his hut near his small vegetable farm even after the land was partly seared by lava flows a few days ago. He was among dozens of residents ordered to evacuate the village of Mabinit below the crater.

“I survive by tending that farm and I have lived here all my life,” a teary-eyed Losentales said as soldiers helped him get on an Army truck loaded with villagers to be brought to a temporary school shelter. “I hope the government can help me now.”

Off-limits to sightseers

Lava began flowing July 14 and has been slowly creeping down Mayon’s slopes.

Volcanologist July Sabit said the alert level was raised after six explosions were monitored starting at 7:08 a.m.

The military has deployed troops to keep sightseers away from the edge of the advancing lava.

No ashfalls rained on nearby villages as the ash explosions rose only 800 meters and ash fell only on the upper slopes of the volcano, Phivolcs said.

But the main lava trail in the southeast section could advance by more than 100 meters downslope within the day, it said.

Forced mass evacuation started in villages in Legazpi about one hour after Phivolcs raised the alert status.

The four affected villages -- Mabinit, Bonga, Buyuan and Matanag -- have 10,500 residents. As of 5 p.m. yesterday, their evacuation was almost complete, said Brigadier General Arsenio Arugay, commander of Task Force Mayon.

The evacuation was orderly, except for some resistance from a few hardheaded villagers.

Soldiers with backpacks assisted men, women, the elderly and the children in the evacuation.

Areas in danger

Disaster teams used village chapels and barangay halls as pickup points for evacuees.
Authorities listed the following areas as included in the 8-km extended danger zone:

• Barangays Anoling, Tinuburan, Sua, Upper Quirangay, Salugan and Upper Cabangan in Camalig town.

• Barangays Miisi, Budiao, Matnog and Banadero in Daraga town; Mabinit, Bonga, Matanag and Buyuan in Legazpi City.

• Barangay Baligang in Ligao City.

• Barangays Bonot, Magapo, Oson, part of Buhian and Comon in Tabaco City.

• Barangays Canaway, Calbayog and part of San Roque in Malilipot town.

• Barangays Lidong, Fidel Surtida, San Isidro, Santa Misericordia and San Antonio in Santo Domingo town.

P250 million

If the volcanic activity takes a turn for the worse, Phivolcs Chair Renato Solidum said the agency could further extend the danger zone to 10 km and recommend the evacuation of an additional 39,791 people, or 6,875 families.
Disaster teams in Albay province have prepared food, water and medical supplies for seven to 10 days.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has set aside P250 million in standby funds for the relief effort if the evacuation continues beyond that period, Secretary Cruz said.

Officials estimated the daily cost of providing for the basic food needs of 7,000 families at P1.4 million, or P200 per family a day. This covers rice, sardines and noodles.

Worst-case scenario

Classes were suspended in the designated evacuation centers, such as the Albay Central, San Roque, Gogon and Bagumbayan elementary schools.
Gov. Fernando Gonzales said residents of affected areas in Malilipot, Santo Domingo, Tabaco, Legazpi, Daraga, Camalig, Ligao and Guinobatan might be asked to prepare to evacuate, too.

In a worst-case scenario, the Apsemo has said that the minimum number of villagers to be evacuated would be 74,069 people, or 13,870 families, from 40 villages in three cities and five municipalities.

The 2,460-meter Mayon is renowned for its perfect cone shape. The Philippines is in the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where volcanic activity and earthquakes are common.

The 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in Central Luzon is considered one of the biggest of the century. Pinatubo hurled nearly 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the air, causing global temperatures to drop temporarily by about half a degree Celsius. The eruption killed at least 300 people, displaced 1.3 million residents, buried 98,600 hectares of farms, and damaged P4 billion worth of infrastructure. With reports from Niño Jesus Y. Orbeta and Job B. Belen, Inquirer Southern Luzon Bureau, and Kate Pedroso, PDI Research