Bacolod City – The Regional Task Force (RTF) Kanlaon has again suspended all human activity within the six-kilometer extended danger zone (EDZ), amid increased volcanic activity and the threat of another eruption.
In an advisory issued recently, RTF Kanlaon said that entry to the EDZ from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., for farmers and residents to carry out farming and other essential activities, will be suspended.
The suspension takes effect June 24 and is to remain in effect until further notice.
This follows the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) recording 67 volcanic quakes, as of Sunday midnight, along with sulfur dioxide emissions of 75 tonnes per day (as of June 22) and continuous degassing that produced a 950-meter-high plume that drifted north-northeast.
Donato Sermeno III, regional director of the Office of Civil Defense – Negros Island Region, raised the possibility that it is a precursor to another eruption, citing the experience with two previous eruptions of the volcano, where PHIVOLCS recorded an increase in the number of volcanic quakes and lowered SO2 emissions.
The plugging of the volcanic conduit and weakening of SO2 emission and degassing, according to PHIVOLCS, leads to a pressure build-up which may trigger explosions.
Sermeno said the occurrence of 67 quakes at Kanlaon Volcano was the most, as far as he recalled, which he describes as alarming.
Alert Level 3 prevails over Kanlaon Volcano.
Almost 1,000 individuals from within the six-kilometer EDZ in the barangays of Sag-ang, Biak Na Bato, Masulog, and Mansalanao of La Castellana, have vacated the schools they used as evacuation centers on June 14, and were moved to makeshift shelters and tents in covered courts and on open spaces.
In Canlaon City, Negros Oriental, more than 2,000 evacuees have been transferred to modular tents established within school campuses.
The 897 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in La Carlota City, who are residing outside the 6-kilometer Kanlaon danger zone, have returned to their respective residences, after vacating the three schools they had been using as evacuation centers. (Gilbert Bayoran via tvds)
