Arroyo vows more aid to 40,000 evacuees

LEGAZPI CITY — President Arroyo visited the simmering Mayon volcano yesterday, promising more aid for the nearly 40,000 people evacuated from their homes amid fears of a major eruption.

Mrs. Arroyo ordered the immediate release of P250 million for relief efforts after visiting some overcrowded and cramped evacuation centers.

The evacuees, mainly poor farmers who till land on the slopes of Mayon, are now housed in makeshift accommodations at 24 local schools and are barred from returning to their homes because of the danger.

Mrs. Arroyo has promised that prefabricated homes and tents for the evacuees will be sent to Legazpi City next week to relieve some of the congestion.

Local officials fear an outbreak of disease, with so many people living in such cramped conditions.

Visiting one evacuation center, Mrs. Arroyo rejected calls by some evacuees that they be allowed to set up shanties on government land.

She also told the city’s local officials to immediately deliver prefabricated shelters and portable toilets: "Why make them live in shanties? We have money for better things."

Mrs. Arroyo shook hands with some of the evacuees at the Bagumbayan Elementary School here to cheers and applause. She also distributed bags of relief supplies that included blankets, canned goods, soap and toothpaste, as well as rice donated by the Japanese government.

"We are happy that she came here," said Alma Rana, a 24-year-old mother of four. "It’s uncomfortable here, the toilet facilities are inadequate and we lack water."

Dozens of people are packed into and sleep on the concrete floor of schoolrooms that normally seat 40 pupils. During school hours, the evacuees stay in tents outside or remain in the school’s corridors.

Relief officials have also said there is still no record of any fatalities, either from the volcano or illness due to the cramped conditions at the evacuation centers.

Albay Gov. Fernando Gonzalez said a major eruption could increase the number of evacuees by 20,000 and other local officials said a wider danger zone of 10 kilometers could lead to the evacuation of 30,000 more people, causing major problems.

A train loaded with packages of used clothing and boxes of luncheon meat arrived in Legazpi last Friday.

Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) Director Renato Solidum told Mrs. Arroyo that an eruption was imminent.

"There is a high probability of a major eruption," Solidum said, adding that on Friday alone the institute recorded 48 minor earthquakes triggered by the volcano. Phivolcs raises the alert level for Mayon to 4 on Monday, the second highest of a five-step volcano warning system that suggests a "hazardous" eruption within days.

He said they recorded six explosions of volcanic ash from Mayon on Friday, up from two on Thursday and one on Wednesday.

Solidum also said there is no way of predicting when the evacuees will be allowed to return home.

The strongest ash explosion was recorded at 3:50 p.m. yesterday "since the volcano started spewing ash on Aug. 7," Phivolcs said in a bulletin. The volcanic debris was spewed with enough force to briefly create a pillar of ash 1.5 kilometers high.

"The best thing the the volcano can do now is explode," he said.

Some 40,000 residents have been evacuated from the six to eight-kilometer danger zone around Mayon.

Solidum said clouds of extremely hot gas, ash and pyroclastic flows that roll down the slopes of Mayon at high speed during an eruption might be contained within the six-kilometer permanent zone from the crater. The danger zone has been extended to eight kilometers on the mountain’s southeastern flanks, where lava flowed along the Bonga gully.

He said "the volume of lava and explosivity will be less than (the deadliest Mayon eruption of) 1814," which killed 1,200 people and buried an entire town in volcanic mud when the lava flowed 10 kilometers past the crater.

Lava continued to flow down the slopes of the 8,070-foot (2,460-meter) high volcano, said to be one of the world’s most spectacular, particularly because of its near-perfect cone, and which has become increasingly unstable since mid-July. — With Celso Amo, Helen Flores, Sheila Crisostomo, Sandy Araneta, AFP and AP