Pinoys in Canada keeping close watch on Taal volcano post eruption
Pinoys in Canada keeping close watch on Taal volcano post eruption
By Ysh Cabana
The Philippine Reporter
TORONTO–Jessica Victoria Cianchino, 21, remembers her brief stay with her relatives in the Philippines last year competing for a beauty pageant representing Canada. Over the past week and a half, Toronto-based Cianchino, has been keeping a close watch on the news as her relatives’ hometown is threatened by the recent huge eruption of nearby Taal volcano.
On January 12, 2020, Taal has spewed lava and emitted hazardous amounts of volcanic ash fall and gases creating a cloud that reached to as far north as Manila and some parts of Central Luzon region about 65 kilometers (40 miles) away the volcano’s crater, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs). Some areas near the immediate vicinity of the volcano have already declared a state of calamity.
Cianchino says her mother is in touch with relatives in the town San Jose, province of Batangas, where emergency shelters were set up for tens of thousands of evacuees. In her gofundme page, she says the immediate basic necessities for affected families include pillows, blankets, food, plates, masks, clothing, etc.
So far the evacuation centres are “regrettably being exhausted of the resources that they are able to provide for the people in need,” says Cianchino, and the economic loss for those in the towns under Taal’s shadow is expected to be huge. Power supplies in the vicinity have been disrupted, and roads made impassable due to ashfall.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Philippines estimated that more than 450,000 people live within the 14 km danger zone.
On the ground, videos taken by locals show the ash cloud was accompanied by intense lightning and thunder above the summit. From above, images from Japan’s Himawari-8 satellite captured the volcanic plume as it spread over the course of Jan. 12 and 13. According to new satellite data from Finnish company ICEYE, the small crater lake on top of Volcano Island within broader Taal caldera lake dried up in signs of its continued restiveness.
History of eruptions
The 311-meter (1,020-foot)-high Taal may look like a small volcano yet highly dangerous, experts say. It is the second most active volcano in the country, the islands of which are formed because they sit at the confluence of several tectonic plates. The entire volcano is complex, according to Phivolcs director Renato Solidum, with features arranged somewhat like an onion model that belies its true size. A volcano within a volcano, it has at least 47 craters and 4 maars—volcanic craters formed by shallow explosive eruptions when magma comes into contact with groundwater.
Taal has erupted in prehistoric times, and its freshwater lake was once a part of saltwater body in the south. Volcanic turmoil had been chronicled since 1572, the year the Augustinian priests founded the town of Taal in the shore of the lake in what is now known as San Nicolas, Batangas. The first recorded most violent eruption happened in 1754 which lasted for 200 days – from May 15 to December 1, which caused the relocation of the towns of Tanauan, Taal, Lipa and Sala.
According to the Global Volcanism Program of the United States Geological Survey and the Smithsonian Institution, Taal underwent frequent eruptions throughout the mid-1960s until 1977. In 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2011, the volcano periodically trembled with earthquakes and occasionally showed increased hydrothermal activity (superhot liquids seeping to the surface), all reminders that Taal remained an active volcano.
With 34 recorded eruptions, Taal Volcano is the second most active volcano in the Philippines. The country lies at the edge of the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” a string of active fault lines around the ocean basin where much of the world’s earthquakes and eruptions occur particularly with volcanoes in Japan, Alaska and Chile.
Aftermath
The key to forecasting the behavior of volcanoes is monitoring, scientists say. Philvolcs says there are more than 700 volcanic earthquakes—some as strong as magnitude 4—caused by the subterranean movement of magma pushing up from the bowels of Taal Volcano since the January 12 eruption.
The institute stressed that the local provincial government and other concerned agencies had been coordinating and issued several bulletins of possible violent eruption since March 2019. Despite ample warning, the eruption reveals the government’s disaster unpreparedness.
The aftermath of the eruption had the president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte declare the Taal Volcano island a “no man’s land.”
“The island volcano of Taal is a permanent danger zone, which suggests that the locality is not fit for human settlement. The Palace is therefore asking the public, particularly those who have been living in the island, for their cooperation and understanding as it is the primordial duty of the government to protect not only their safety and welfare but their very lives,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a statement on January 16.
Kristine Bobadilla-Damay, 33, is from a small lake-side barangay in Sta. Teresita and shared with The Philippine Reporter her family’s eyewitness account.
“Nakakapanlumo at sobrang takot na namin, lalo na yung mga anak ko,” she writes. “Habang nag-aayos kami at inaayos ang mga gamit na maiiwan, nag-umpisa nang lumindol.”
“Lumilipad pa din ang isip ko sa mga naiwan ko at sa mga kababayan ko sa evacuation center, walang panlatag sa higaan, naaabutan pa din (ng abo) kasi bubong lang ng court yung pinagdalhan sa kanila. Walang mga kumot.”
“Ang bigat sa pakiramdam. Lumuha na lang ako patalikod,” says Damay.
“Kilala kaming barako: matatapang, masayahin. Pero tao kaming nanghihina at nanlalambot ‘pag ganito ang aming nakikitang sitwasyon sa taga amin.”
Health department secretary Francisco Duque III said hundreds of villagers have been treated for respiratory infections, hypertension, diarrhea, skin lesions, flu and coughs in evacuation centers. About 300,000 masks, including those from regions unaffected by the volcanic eruption, have been sent to calamity-hit areas.
Sagip Migrante re-activates
As government officials brace for the crisis, various NGOs and civic groups urged Filipino communities in the diaspora to raise material support for the affected families. Migrante International with local partner Citizens Disaster Response Center (CDRC) has started holding activities in various cities globally for sending disaster relief goods and to provide assistance to those who are affected by the recent eruption.
Migrante Canada is calling on people to donate through their calamity support project. The group also chided the Duterte administration for slashing the country’s calamity fund, while the President’s confidential intelligence fund was reportedly increased in the 2020 budget.
“On behalf of the 20 member organizations across Canada, Migrante once again requests for your support for the victims in the Philippines,” said Migrante in a statement. “Cash would be the best and fastest way to remit back home however we also accept non-perishable goods: rice, canned goods, food that can be stored for a long time, face masks (N95 type or higher) etc.”
Donations can be e-transfered directly to their email migrantecanada@gmail.com with the subject “Sagip Migrante” (Migrants Relief).
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