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Philippines on alert as volcano spews ash, lava
TALISAY CITY, Philippines, Jan 13, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Lava and broad columns
of ash illuminated by lightning shot from an erupting volcano south of the
Philippine capital on Monday, grounding hundreds of flights amid an alert for
a possible “explosive eruption”.
Homes and streets across the region surrounding the Taal volcano, which
exploded to life on Sunday accompanied by a series of earthquakes, were
coated in fine grit and at least 10,000 people had sought refuge in
evacuation centres.
“You could not sleep anymore, because every time you closed your eyes the
house would shake,” restaurant owner Lia Monteverde told AFP, saying the
quakes came minutes apart.
“All of us didn’t sleep at all. We just prepared to leave.”
Taal sits in a picturesque lake and is one of the most active volcanoes in
a nation where earthquakes and eruptions are a frightening and destructive
part of life.
The activity is due to the Philippines’ position on the Pacific “Ring of
Fire”, where tectonic plates collide deep below the Earth’s surface.
Schools in the region around Taal, government offices and the Philippine
Stock Exchange were closed as a precaution on Monday.
Aviation officials said they were working to resume flights at Manila’s
main international airport, which was shut down Sunday due to the risk posed
to planes by the volcanic ash.
Some 240 flights have been cancelled so far, snarling plans for tens of
thousands of people travelling through the Ninoy Aquino International
Airport.
“I’m disappointed because this (delay) means additional expense for me and
it’s tiring to wait,” said stranded traveler Joan Diocaras, a 28-year-old
Filipino who works in Taiwan.
“But there’s nothing we can do.”
– Alert level raised –
The eruption began with an explosion of superheated steam and rock, but by
early Monday “fountains” of lava had been spotted on Taal, the Philippine
Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said.
Authorities raised the alert level to its second-highest level on Sunday,
saying an “explosive eruption” could happen in “hours to days”.
Phivolcs chief Renato Solidum told AFP the lava was evidence of fresh
movement in the volcano, but said it was unclear if Taal would “sustain its
activity”.
Government seismologists recorded magma moving towards the crater of Taal,
which is located 65 kilometres (40 miles) south of Manila.
Apart from the ash, some particles up to 6.4 centimetres (2.5 inches) in
diameter, larger than a golf ball, had reportedly fallen in areas around the
lake, Phivolcs said.
Taal’s last eruption was in 1977, Solidum said.
Two years ago, Mount Mayon displaced tens of thousands of people after
spewing millions of tonnes of ash, rocks and lava in the central Bicol
region.
The most powerful explosion in recent years was the 1991 eruption of Mount
Pinatubo, about 100 kilometres northwest of Manila, which killed more than
800 people.
It spewed an ash cloud that travelled thousands of kilometres in a matter
of days and was blamed for damaging nearly two dozen aircraft.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0927 hrs