Some Filipinos reminded residents to take their pets with them amid reports of forced evacuation on Taal Volcano Island.
State seismologists recently advised the public about the continuous tremors in the active volcano, which eventually caused alarm on social media.
The word “Taal” trended on Twitter Philippines on Tuesday afternoon, with over 18,100 tweets under its belt as Filipinos expressed worry over the news.
“Heard the news that Taal Volcano is being awaken again, no please not again. To all the Filipinos leaving near Taal like me, please let’s all stay safe and to everyone else! (prayer emoji)” one user said.
“I hope everybody’s safe especially to those people who live near the Taal Volcano. Don’t forget to pray for everybody’s safety,” another user said.
They also hoped evacuees would bring their pets and prevent them from getting trapped like last year.
“Don’t forget to bring your pets please,” one user said.
During the Taal eruption in January 2020, many animals were left in their cages, on the streets and still on-leashes when residents in the volcano island evacuated for safety.
Limited transport prevented some owners to carry their pets as well.
Several animal rights organizations and other concerned Filipinos rushed to return and conduct rescue operations for the animals after the eruption cleared.
One of the animal survivors is a dog named Kira. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals-Asia, shared a photo of her and stated that she was finally adopted.
“She was hard to adopt out as she has PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder), including night tremors (eased by a Thundershirt), but she now has a perfect, loving home,” the post read.
Kira was rescued by PETA from the #TaalVolcano eruption in the #Philippines.
She was hard to adopt out as she has PTSD, including night tremors (eased by a Thundershirt), but she now has a perfect, loving home. ❤ #AdoptDontShop pic.twitter.com/lg12siuYzi
— PETA Asia (@PETAAsia) February 16, 2021
Meanwhile, residents of the island were also evacuated due to the slightly increased seismic activity of Taal. The Philippine Coast Guard enforced the forced evacuation.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology reported that since Saturday, February 13, they recorded a total of 68 shallow tremor episodes.
Then, from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. last Monday, they also recorded 50 tremor episodes.
In advisory Tuesday on Tuesday morning, Phivolcs stated that the Taal Volcano Network recorded 98 tremor episodes that lasted between five and 12 minutes.
The alert level remained at 1, said the seismologists.
“DOST-PHIVOLCS reminds the public that at Alert Level 1, sudden steam-driven or phreatic explosions, volcanic earthquakes, minor ashfall, and lethal accumulations or expulsions of volcanic gas can occur and threaten areas within the Taal Volcano Island (TVI),” read the advisory.
