Albay government declared state of calamity in the province
Posted on December 16th, 2009
Because of the imminent danger posed by the continuous activity of the Mayon Volcano, the provincial board of Albay placed the province under a state of calamity by noon of Thursday. This is to allow the local government to spend 5% of its budget for relief and other operational expenses in connection with the anticipated violent eruption of the volcano.
Albay Governor and Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council chair Joey Salceda said, “We had been sheltering under an earlier declaration of a state of imminent danger for Mayon since alert level two was raised by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Philvocs) on July 10 this year but there was a need to further upgrade the status of the province as alert level 3 was hoisted and it is now almost at alert level 4.”
Classes have already been suspended and the evacuation of families is already complete. According to the office of the Civil Defense, 7,103 families or 33,614 persons have already been evacuated from the foot of the restive volcano and hopes to complete the evacuation tomorrow.
Julio Sabit, supervising research specialist of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Philvocs), said they recorded 10 minor eruptions since noon on Thursday and ash puffs ranging from 100 to 300 meters high. “The increased frequency of eruptions indicates that this will lead to a bigger activity, probably within the next few days,” he said.
Authorities have imposed a curfew starting midnight of Thursday within the 6-kilometer radius permanent danger zone and the extended danger zone up to 8 kilometers around the volcano.
Task Force Mayon composed of the Philippine National Police, the Philippine Army and the Philippine Navy, have been providing vehicles together with private organizations to help the evacuations of affected residents.
