Residents refuse to leave their homes near Taal volcano

GulfNews: Residents refuse to leave their homes near Taal volcano

Manila: Only 388 of 7,000 residents have left their homes near the simmering Taal volcano in southern Luzon's Batangas province.

A total of 81 families or 388 people from four villages were evacuated, and a majority of them were housed at Venancio Senior Memorial School while the rest stayed with their relatives when the volcano's lips fluted and its surrounding lake registered high carbon dioxide, said Jing Segismundo, provincial information officer.

Some 1,552 families or 6,612 residents who refused to leave their homes were instructed to prepare to leave since the entire volcano island is a danger zone.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council alerted all local government units to prepare for enforced evacuation.

Toxic gases

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said people should be barred from going to Taal's main crater, Daang Kastila Trail and Mt Tabaro because "sudden hazardous steam-driven explosions could occur and high concentrations of toxic gases may accumulate".

On Monday, Taal's main crater registered seven volcanic earthquakes, a decrease from 21 tremors on Friday. But its lips began to inflate, compared to a survey measurement on February 2.

The lake around it emitted 4,670 tonnes of carbon dioxide on Sunday, compared to an earlier measurement of 2,250 tonnes per day. The lake was also less acidic, with pH value of 2.84 compared to 2.82 on March 29. All these are signs that magma has been rising near Taal's crater.

More than 30 eruptions

Earthquakes and carbon dioxide emissions could increase in the next several days, a sign of the volcano's "magmatic eruption," said Phivolcs, but no date was specified for the major eruption.

Taal has erupted 33 times. Its last eruption was in 1977. Many lives were saved then because lava flows stopped at the lake surrounding the volcano. The Philippines has 22 active volcanoes.