Monday, June 26, 2006
Residents flee as boulders rumble down volcano
MANILA -- About 100 residents fled from a farming village after hearing boulders and rocks rumbling down restive Mount Bulusan amid heavy rains from a tropical storm, an official said Sunday.
Army and government trucks helped the residents flee from Cogon village below Bulusan. No one was injured and no houses were damaged by the mudflow and boulders -- some as big as a car -- that tumbled down the volcano late Saturday, said Mayor Lilia Gonzales of Irosin town, where Cogon is located.
The boulders and rocks -- ejected during Bulusan's previous ash expulsions -- were washed down the volcano by the heavy rains, Gonzales said.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said Sunday that volcanologists have ruled out a magma-driven eruption of the volcano in the next few days.
Nevertheless, Arroyo, who left Sunday for Europe, ordered contingency measures for the area in case the volcano erupts while she is abroad.
Saturday's incident, although not an eruption, had villagers running for their lives, thinking they would be crushed, said Gonzales.
The 100 villagers were brought to a school away from the volcano, joining 400 other residents who were evacuated days earlier following Bulusan's intermittent blasts of ash and rocky debris, Gonzales said.
Arroyo, in her pre-departure speech Sunday at the Manila airport, said the military in the area has already shifted from counter insurgency operations to disaster and relief.
The contingency measures that Arroyo ordered for Bulusan are:
* A "Bulusan express" composed of two C-130s, eight helicopters that include the Presidential helicopter, and a train filled with relief goods to be transported from Manila to Bicol;
* The sending by the Presidential Security Group (PSG) of a medical contingent to the area;
* Rice stockpiling by the National Food Authority (NFA);
* Donation of used clothing from an "ukay-ukay" shipment recently seized by the Bureau of Customs (BOC);
* Making available of calamity funds by Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr., who is Cabinet Officer for Regional Development (Cord) for Bicol region; and
* Granting by the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the Pag-ibig of emergency loans to residents in the Bulusan area.
Glenn Rabonza, executive director of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), said the preparations are focused on six barangays outside the four-kilometer permanent danger zone around Bulusan. The barangays, with a population of 5,800, are located in Irosin, Juban, Casiguran and Bulusan towns.
Nearly 2,000 people have been displaced and evacuated to school buildings in Irosin and the nearby towns of Casiguran and Juban due to Bulusan's ash expulsions and the danger of volcanic mudflows, disaster officials said.
The 1,560-meter (5,149-foot) volcano, located in Sorsogon province about 390 kilometers southeast of Manila, has belched ash nine times since coming back to life in March. Its last major eruption was in 1994, causing no casualties.
Sorsogon is among a cluster of eastern provinces experiencing heavy rains due to a tropical storm affecting the central Philippines, government forecasters said.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology warned villagers to stay away from a permanent danger zone around Bulusan. Although the volcano was quiet Sunday, the stormy weather could trigger life-threatening volcanic mudflows, it said in a statement.
Gonzales said she has warned residents in villages under threat of mudflows or rock slides to evacuate to temporary shelters because of the storm and not wait for an imminent danger before moving away.
"I told them that in an ash explosion they can just cover their face with towels but in a sudden mudflow, they'll be the ones to be covered alive," she said.
Bulusan is one of 22 active volcanos in the Philippines, which lies on the Pacific Ocean's "Ring of Fire," where volcanic activity and earthquakes are common. (AP/JMR/Sunnex)
(June 26, 2006 issue)
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