Permanent evacuation center in Albay eyed
LEGAZPI – The city government plans to put up a permanent evacuation center in a 50-hectare property for residents affected by Mayon Volcano’s eruption.
”We can’t put this in the city proper. We are thinking of Barangay Hamapon or between Maslog and Taisan,” Legazpi Mayor Noel Rosal said yesterday.
Rosal said the city government bought a land in Homapon.
He said the permanent evacuation site would be financed by a loan from the Land Bank of the Philippines, adding that the first phase of the project is the construction of a road network.
Officials are worried over the prolonged disruption of classes because many schools are used as evacuation centers.
Mayon continued to extrude lava in the past 24 hours, which flowed 3.3 kilometers down the Miisi gully in Daraga, 4.5 kms in Bonga gully in this city and 900 meters in Basud in Sto. Domingo, resident volcanologist Ed Laguerta said.
Laguerta said pyroclastic materials flowed 4.5 kms down the Miisi and Bonga gullies and 4.2 kms in Basud. He said sulphur dioxide emissions remained high at 2,526 tons on Thursday.
“We hope Mayon’s eruption will be limited to lava fountaining, lava flow and quiet lava extrusion... like when it erupted in 2008 and 2009,” Laguerta told The STAR.
Cedric Daep, chief of the Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office, said they have designed several maps in coordination with the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology to serve as guides on how to deal with the threat posed by Mayon’s eruptions.
”We have maps for lava, pyroclastic and lahar flows,” Daep said.
Meanwhile, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) assigned 52 additional employees to monitor evacuation centers and assist evacuees in Guinobatan town.
There are around 3,000 families in 17 evacuation centers in the town.
The DSWD is in charge of Guinobatan under the adopt-amunicipality program initiated by Presidential Political Affairs Adviser Francis Tolentino, who was tasked to lead Mayon relief operations.