MANILA, Philippines — (UPDATE – 11:10 a.m.) Almost 22,000 persons have been displaced in Albay amid Mayon Volcano’s intense restiveness, the Department of Social Welfare and Development said Tuesday morning, January 16.
The agency said 5,318 families, or 21,823 individuals, from 25 barangays are affected, with 4,134 families, or 16,887 persons, staying in 18 evacuation centers.
The rest have taken shelter with relatives in Daraga town, the DSWD added.
The Albay Provincial Risk Reduction and Management Council, for its part, ordered the towns of Camalig and Guinobatan, and Ligao City to suspend classes at all levels “in the event of moderate to heavy ashfall for health reasons” as Mayon Volcano remained restive Tuesday morning, January 16.
“Residents are hereby advised to stay indoors every time ashfall is in progress,” said the advisory of the PDRRMC, which is chaired by Governor Al Francis Bichara.
Bichara has also recommended declaring the province in a state of calamity.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology has raised Alert Level 3 over the volcano, which is renowned for its “perfect cone.”
The level of alert means a “relatively high level of unrest and that magma is at the crater, and that a hazardous eruption is possible within weeks or even days.”
Phivolcs director Renato Solidum said they continue to closely monitor Mayon after Monday’s “lava fountaining.”
On Tuesday morning, Phivolcs video recorded a “pyroclastic density current,” which the Geological Society of London defines as “high-speed, gravity-driven flows of hot particles and gas” that are “a common and highly destructive product of explosive volcanism,” at the Miisi Gully.
Tuesday’s flow, at 7:58 a.m., was caused by a “lava collapse.”
WATCH PHIVOLCS’ VIDEO OF THE PYROCLASTIC DENSITY CURRENT:
Lava fountaining above the crater:
