LEGAZPI CITY —The Albay Public Safety Emergency Management Office (APSEMO) on Saturday urged the people to be on alert against possible lahar due to heavy rains brought about by the tail-end of the cold front here.
“Communities and local government units are advised to be additionally vigilant and to move residents to high ground when heavy rains continue,” said APSEMO head Cedric Daep in an interview.
Heavy rains have increased the dangers of lahar flows on Mayon Volcano’s major channels with deposits of thick pyroclastic materials and ashfall.
APSEMO’s warning reiterated the alert issued by Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) on Saturday morning which noted that the deposits could be remobilized by rainwater and generate lahars by themselves and or by incorporating existing erodible material on channel banks.
Phivolcs latest Mayon bulletin released at 10 a.m. Saturday noted that the total volume of pyroclastic materials so far deposited on the watershed areas, mostly on the Buyuan and Miisi channel watershed, is approximately 9 million cubic meters, excluding unverified deposits on the northern flank.
The total volume of ashfall on the western sector is roughly 1.5 million cubic meters.
The bulletin added that “active stream or river channels and those identified as perennially lahar-prone areas on all sectors of the volcano should also be avoided.”
Phivolcs warned of potential lahars and sediment-laden stream flows on all river channels draining the slopes of Mayon Volcano especially the Buyuan, Miisi, Mabinit, Basud, San Vicente, Buang, Quirangay and Masarawag-Maninila that may be generated by heavy rainfalls brought about by the cold-front.
It said there was also the perennial life-threatening dangers of rockfalls, landslides and avalanches at the middle to upper slopes, sudden ash puffs and steam driven or phreatic eruptions from the summit. (PNA)
