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PHILIPPINES-VOLCANO
Philippines lowers volcano alert, thousands can return home
MANILA, Jan 26, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – A major explosion of the Philippines’
restive Taal volcano no longer appears imminent, authorities said Sunday as
they partially lifted a mass evacuation order but warned residents should
still remain ready to flee.
Warning signs like earthquakes have been steadily waning since Taal
burst to life two weeks ago, prompting at least 135,000 people into
evacuation centres over fears of a massive eruption.
The nation’s seismological agency said steadily shrinking ash and gas
emissions were signs of “decreased tendency towards hazardous explosive
eruption”, leading them to drop the alert by a notch.
The immediate impact of the reduced warning was provincial authorities
lifting the evacuation order for nearly all the towns that ring the volcano,
a tourist attraction that sits in the middle of a lake.
“Residents of all towns under lockdown except Agoncillo and Laurel now
have the option to return,” local governor Hermilando Mandanas told a press
conference.
“There’s a possibility that the volcano may still erupt and we should
still be ready to evacuate in one hour.”
The volcano shot ash 15 kilometres (nine miles) high and spewed lava in
the January 12 eruption, which crushed scores of homes and killed livestock
as well as crops.
However, seismologists warned the volcano could imminently unleash a
much bigger eruption, posing a deadly risk to anyone in a 14-kilometre radius
“danger zone”.
Taal, located just 60 kilometres from the capital Manila, is one of the
most active volcanoes in a country where eruptions and earthquakes are a
dangerous part of life.
Its last eruption was in 1977, but it has a long history of activity. In
1965, a Taal eruption killed some 200 people.
The most powerful volcanic explosion in the Philippines in recent years
was the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, about 100 kilometres northwest of
Manila, which killed more than 800 people.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0940 hrs