Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Officials start shutting evacuation centers after Mayon simmers down (1:55 p.m.)
MANILA -- Most of about 30,000 people evacuated while the Philippines' Mayon volcano was rumbling have left shelters and were back home Wednesday, two days after scientists declared a major eruption unlikely, disaster officials said.
"We are expecting that by Thursday, we would have completely decamped everyone," said Jukes Nunez, a planning and operations officer of the provincial disaster coordinating council in Albay province, southeast of Manila.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology on Monday lowered its alert status on Mayon after its activity waned.
The institute reported Wednesday only eight volcanic earthquakes associated with the "continuing decrease in the perceived rate of lava extrusion."
It had reported double-digit numbers of earthquakes per day previously and on Aug. 8 recorded more than 100. Earthquakes are one of many indicators of volcanic activity.
The 2,462-meter (8,077-foot) volcano stirred to life in a mild eruption in mid-July, characterized by the quiet oozing of lava.
Following six ash explosions within an hour on Aug. 7, scientists warned of a possible violent eruption, prompting the forced evacuations of nearby villages.
The number of evacuees reached more than 44,000 in mid-August but dropped to about 30,000 by last Friday, Nunez said.
He said about 80 percent of all evacuees had returned home by Wednesday, freeing up public elementary schools used as temporary shelters.
He said a six-kilometer (3.75-mile) "danger zone" around the volcano will remain off limits, extending to another kilometer (less than mile) on the southeastern side of the mountain, which is vulnerable to sudden pyroclastic flows - blistering clouds of ash and volcanic debris that race down slopes at high speed.
The country's most active volcano has not blasted out ash since Sept. 1 and has eased its sulfur dioxide emissions as the reddish glow of its crater has become less intense. As a result, volcanologists lowered a five-step alert system from 4 to 3, indicating that unrest continues but with less chance of an explosive eruption.
Mayon, popular among tourists for its nearly perfect conical shape, has erupted at least 47 times in the last 400 years. Its most violent eruption, in 1814, killed more than 1,200 people and buried a town in mud.(AP) |
