NDRRMC estimates damage to crops from Mayon more than P100m
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) placed damage to agriculture from Mayon Volcano's activity at more than a hundred million pesos.
In a press briefing in Albay on Monday, NDRRMC Executive Director Undersecretary Ricardo Jalad said damage to agricultural products was estimated at P189,434,666.
The NDRRMC report shows damage to rice crops amounted to P181,382,970.00, corn worth P7,573,696.00 and P478,000.00 worth of abaca.
Jalad said a total of 10,294 farmers from at least 11 cities and municipalities were also affected.
He said the government is serving 18,291 families or 69,425 persons inside the total of 74 evacuation centers while 2,822 other families or 11,946 individuals were being served outside the evacuation centers. This brought total number of persons displaced by Mayon at 81,371.
Albay Governor Al Francis Bichara said there were a total of 48,000 students affected by the suspension of classes, as 78 schools were used as evacuation centers.
Bichara said only 981 classrooms are being used by the evacuees while around 1,200 rooms were needed to accommodate the affected population.
He said there are some evacuees who are suffering from different illness inside the evacuation centers.
Jalad said among the recorded illness includes respiratory decease such as nose and throat irritation, coughing, bronchitis, discomfort while breathing, eye irritation, minor skin problems and hypertension.
Based on its latest report the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs)has recorded four episodes of sporadic lava fountaining from the summit crater lasting 36 to 57 minutes which occurred between 5:36 am to 7:47 pm of Friday.
“The events fed lava flows on the Mi-isi and Bonga Gullies, sprayed near-vent lava spatter, and fed rockfall on the summit area. The lava fountaining events were succeeded by lava effusion in the early morning that fed new lava flow on the Bonga and Miisi Gullies,” the report stated.
“Heavy rainfall that lasted until the early morning generated channel confined lahars on the Binaan Channel and sediment-laden stream flows in channels draining the volcano edifice due to the remobilization of deposits of pyroclastic density currents or PDCs on the watershed areas,” it added.
Phivolcs said Mayon's seismic monitoring network also recorded a total of 41 volcanic earthquakes, six tremor events four of which correspond to the lava fountaining events, and 16 rockfall events as the volcano remain under alert level four.
“Rockfall events were generated by the collapsing lava front and margins of the advancing lava flow on the Bonga and Miisi Gullies. Currently, the Miisi and Bonga lava flows have maintained their advance to three and 1.8 kilometers, respectively, from the summit crater,” the report noted. Robina Asido/DMS
