A moderately explosive eruption and renewed ash emission from Mayon Volcano led to the evacuation of 2,041 people from 746 families in Albay, while authorities kept Alert Level 3 in place and barred entry to the volcano’s six-kilometer danger zone.
The eruption began at 11:53 a.m. on Friday, October 30, and lasted about six minutes. It sent a gray plume about 3,000 meters above the crater. At 5:17 a.m. the next morning, PHIVOLCS recorded another ash emission.
A smaller plume rose about 200 meters before drifting west-southwest. By Friday evening, evacuees were from Tabaco City, Camalig and Barangay Baligang in Ligao City. There were 531 families from Tabaco, 205 from Camalig and 10 from Ligao.
Albay’s disaster office put its operations center on red alert. The provincial health office distributed 22,000 surgical masks to help residents deal with ashfall. A separate report said 1,477 evacuees were still in evacuation centers on Saturday.
Officials had not set a date for their return. As of Sunday, November 1, PHIVOLCS said Mayon had not had another explosive eruption since October 30. PHIVOLCS said signs of unrest remained and Alert Level 3 stayed in force.
The agency recorded 14 volcanic earthquakes and seven rockfall events in the previous 24 hours. Authorities urged residents and visitors to stay out of the danger zone while monitoring continued.