With evacuees gone, Albay schools get ready for classes

LEGAZPI CITY — With thousands of evacuees back in their villages, public schools, which they had used as temporary shelters from the rumblings of Mayon Volcano, are getting ready for classes again.

Local authorities have begun fumigating at least 29 public elementary and high schools, which served as evacuation centers for more than 40,000 evacuees from the towns of Malilipot, Sto. Domingo, Daraga, Camalig and Guinobatan and the cities of Tabaco, Legazpi and Ligao.

To compensate for the class hours lost, Epifanio Buela, Albay’s schools division superintendent, said students of these schools would have to attend make-up classes on Saturdays.

Since acting up last March, belching ash and extruding lava, Mayon appeared to have quieted down, prompting volcanologists to lower the five-step alert level from four to three, meaning that the unrest continues but with less chance of an explosive eruption.

Depending on the day-to-day readings, volcanologists may further lower the alert level in one to two weeks.

Helma Canon, of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), said they expect fluctuations in Mayon’s abnormal parameters until the volcano finally returns to normalcy.

During the past 24 hours, 18 volcanic earthquakes were detected compared to eight the previous day, while tremors increased from 108 to 111. In the past three days, sulfur dioxide emission was placed at 1,500 tons a day.

Although the alert level was lowered, Phivolcs warned locals against venturing into the six-kilometer danger zone, extended to seven kilometers on the southeast side, due to sudden pyroclastic explosions and lava avalanches.