LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 7 -- Disaster authorities on Thursday directed 56 barangay captains in high risk areas surrounding Mt Mayon to draw up and submit to the provincial disaster council their respective pick-up points for evacuees once the volcano fully erupts.
The Albay Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC) met on Thursday with chieftains of villages located near the 6-km Permanent Danger Zone and the 7-km extended danger zone at the southeast flank of the volcano covering the towns of Malilipot, Sto Domingo, Daraga, Camalig, Guinobatan, including the cities of Tabaco and Legazpi.
The village officials were brief on the current restive state of the volcano and the standard operating procedures on mass evacuation to be done in case the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology(Phivolcs) raises the volcano's alert status to level 3, meaning the probability of an eruption is high.
Cedric Daep, Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office (APSEMO) chief said some 13,458 families or 47,018 people from two cities and five towns will have to be evacuated to safer grounds once Phivolcs raises Alert Level 3.
At alert level three (relatively unrest), mass evacuation would be done in areas within the 6-km PDZ and the 7-km extended danger zone at the southeast quadrant facing this city.
Ed Laguerta, Phivolcs resident volcanologist said areas threatened by pyroclastic flows, magmatic explosions, lava flows are villages at the foot of the volcano covering the towns of Daraga, Camalig, Guinobatan, Sto Domingo, and Malilipot, including the cities of Tabaco and Legazpi.
Laguerta urged the village chieftains to advise their villagers not to venture at the designated danger zones as this areas are considered vulnerable to pyroclastic flow moving with a speed of 80 to 100 kph with a heat of 600 to 1,000 degree Celsius.
At the meeting the PDCC turned over 112 mountain bikes(two bikes per village chief) megaphones, flashlights, transistor radios, whistles, and medical kits, the equipment will be used as warning and monitoring in times of evacuation.
Col. Marlou Salazar, commanding officer of the 901st Infantry Brigade and transportation and evacuation chief of Task Force Mayon, said 30 military trucks and vehicles were readied in case a mass evacuation was ordered.
He also said that they had deployed some 100 soldiers in 12 checkpoints put up around the volcano's restricted areas.
Phivolcs instrument at the Ligñon Hill observatory has monitored 7 earthquakes around Mayon on Thursday.
Precise Leveling result indicate no significant swelling on the volcano edifice was noted bulging at the Buang and Lidong lines remained at 5.0 mm. There was no new intrusion of molten materials or magma to the surface, Laguerta said.
Crater glow intensity remained at level 2 while sulfur gas emission activity for the past 24 hours was 991 tons per day, a little lower than the 1,977 tons monitored on Tuesday.
As alert level 2 remains hoisted over Mayon Volcano, Phivolcs ordered residents not to venture in the areas within the 6-km Permanent Danger Zone and the 7-km extended danger zones due to threat from sudden explosions and rockfalls from the upper slopes of the volcano.(PNA)