Thousands of people yesterday were being evacuated from villages around a rumbling volcano near the Philippine capital, but officials said they faced another dilemma of ensuring emergency shelters would not turn into epicenters of COVID-19 infections.
The alert was raised to level 3 on a five-level scale after Taal Volcano blasted a dark gray plume into the sky on Thursday. The five-minute steam and gas-driven explosion was followed by four smaller emissions, but the volcano was generally calm yesterday, volcanologists said.
Level 3 means “magma is near or at the surface, and activity could lead to hazardous eruption in weeks,” while level 5 means a life-threatening eruption is occurring that could endanger communities, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.
Photo: AP
The agency asked people to stay away from a small island on a scenic lake where Taal sits and is considered a permanent danger zone along with a number of nearby lakeside villages in Batangas province south of Manila.
An eruption of Taal last year displaced hundreds of thousands of people and briefly closed Manila’s international airport.
Agency Director Renato Solidum said it was too early to know if the volcano’s current unrest will lead to a full-blown eruption.
The preemptive evacuations involved residents in five high-risk villages in the lakeside towns of Laurel and Agoncillo.
More than 14,000 people might have to be moved away, Philippine National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council spokesman Mark Timbal said.
Town officials faced an extra predicament of ensuring that emergency shelters, usually school buildings, basketball gymnasiums and even Catholic church grounds, would not become COVID-19 hot spots.
In Laurel town, Imelda Reyes feared for her and her family’s safety in their home near the volcano and in the crowded grade school-turned-evacuation center where they took shelter.
“If we stay home, the volcano can explode anytime,” Reyes said. “But here, just one sick person can infect all of us. Both are dangerous choices.”
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