Albay under state of calamity; gov, mayors tap calamity funds for Mayon evacuees

The Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Albay held a special session on Tuesday afternoon to pass Resolution No. ‎670-2018 declaring the entire province of Albay under a state of calamity due to the ongoing Mayon Volcano eruption.

Board member Raul Rosal, presiding officer, said the declaration was needed to enable the local government units to utilize their calamity funds for disaster response operations.

He said according to the Albay Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (PDRRMC), the partial evacuation report indicated 6,459 families or 24,752 persons covering 29 barangays.

Affected areas are the cities of Legazpi, Tabaco and Ligao and municipalities of Daraga, Camalig, Guinobatan, Malilipot and Sto. Domingo.

Alert Level 3 remains in effect over Mayon Volcano because of its continuing volcanic activity.

Quiet lava effusion from a new summit lava dome, lava flow and lava collapse events were recorded today as Mayon Volcano continued its eruptive activity in the past 24 hours.

Ed Laguerta, chief of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology in Bicol, said a total of nine episodes of tremor, four of which accompanied short-duration lava fountaining, and 75 lava collapse events, corresponding to rock fall along the front and margins of advancing lava and short pyroclastic flows downriver of Miisi Gully within the permanent danger zone, were recorded by Mayon’s seismic network. (PNA)