More than 67,500 people still displaced by Mayon Volcano unrest

A TOTAL of 67,588 people, belonging to 17,733 families, have yet to go home more than a month since Mayon Volcano started showing increased restiveness on Jan. 14. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), in a report released yesterday, said majority of the displaced residents, or 62,097, are still in 57 evacuation centers while the rest are staying with relatives. The extended eight-kilometer radius danger zone around the mountain volcano remains in effect and the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) maintains an alert level 4 in the area. In its Feb. 19 bulletin, Phivolcs said: “Mayon’s activity in the past 24 hours was characterized by sporadic and weak lava fountaining, lava flow and degassing from the summit crater,” with six discrete lava fountaining episodes that lasted 10 to 23 minutes. The agency said lava flow is “sustained at 3.3 kilometers, 4.5 kilometers and 900 meters on the Miisi, Bonga and Basud Gullies, respectively, from the summit crater.”