It really strikes me as strange when media refers to "villages"
beneath volcanos -- and how the "villagers are encouraged to flee".
It gives the impression, to me at least, of mud-huts and palm-fronds,
and scurrying natives in grass skirts, dashing in panic into the
wilderness.
This photo shows an ordinary modern town, with several
apparent multi-story buildings, electricity is evident -- and, golly,
there isn't a mud-hut in sight! Asking those "villagers" to "flee" is
like asking somebody in Watsonville, CA, or Knoxville, TN, to just
pack up and go somewhere else. Where? Leaving behind your home,
possessions, job, everything you know?
It seems like we have a national penchant to think of this horror
happening in a "village over there"....to protect us from thinking
about the event as something that might happen in "real towns over
here".
-- Anita Evangelista (ale@townsqr.com), February 24, 2000.
It seems like we have a national penchant to think of this horror
happening in a "village over there"....to protect us from thinking
about the event as something that might happen in "real towns over
here".
-- Anita Evangelista (ale@townsqr.com), February 24, 2000.
You've got that right. There's a strong "nothing can go wrong
here mindset amongst many in this country and if something were
to go wrong, why the government would be right there to bail them out
of it. We have so many that never seem to make the connection between
the stories they read in the newspaper everyday and their own local
surroundings.
Curious this volcano story should crop up today, I just yesterday
added three volcano related URLs to the links page on the Cooperative
web site yesterday. There are some really neat sites on the topic out
there.
Thanks for including the picture, Powder,I really like the smaller
inset one.
.........Alan.
The Providence Cooperative - free preparedness & survivalism FAQ's
http://www.providenceco-op.com
-- A.T. Hagan (athagan@netscape.net), February 24, 2000.
It does kinda remind me of an incident in Italy, I was passing
through Sigonella NAS (Naval Air Station) near Palermo in Sicily in
1989. The entire town, was sitting under a perpetual haze of thick
black smoke and ash from Mt. Etna. It had been erupting on and off
for some time before I arrived.
My layover was three days long and on the second day, Mt. Etna had a
pretty good size eruption and spat out a huge river of lava. Luckily
it never made it to the town, but everyone in town just went about
their daily business as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
Those people were being sheeple because they had been conditioned to
think of Etna as a non-threat. Just because something is an ordinary
event is no reason not to take precautions. I mean look at what
happened to Pompeii. Buried so deep it took nearly 2000 years to find
it again.
Another thing I learned, is that when a volcano erupts, you just
don't want to be anywhere near it. You're totally powerless against
it. The only thing you can do is be lucky and not be there.
-- Powder (Powder47keg@aol.com), February 24, 2000.
Feb 24, 2000 - 01:23 PM
Philippine Volcano Erupts, Spews Superhot Lava; Thousands Flee
By Bullit Marquez
LEGAZPI, Philippines (AP) - A 1 1/2-mile-high volcano erupted
Thursday, spewing superheated ash into the air and sending streams of
superhot, bright orange lava down its slopes.
Thousands of nearby villagers, many jarred from sleep by rumblings
before the pre-dawn eruption, boarded army trucks to leave the area.
Evacuees crammed into school classrooms and some took refuge under
trees in the schoolyard. No injuries were reported.
The Mayon volcano's eruption began with lava gushing out of the
crater, accompanied by loud rumblings that some nearby residents
compared to thunder. Lava with temperatures that reached well above
1,000 degrees cascaded 3 1/2 miles down the mountain's near-perfect
conical slopes. Ash rained as far as seven miles away.
Fourteen explosions were recorded by late afternoon, the Philippine
Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said. The fiercest sent ash
flying 4 1/2 miles into the air and spread it across the sky,
darkening some villages and forcing cars to use their headlights at
midday.
Officials warned that a more violent explosion could occur at any
time.
The area is most vulnerable to lava, falling rocks and deadly
pyroclastic flows - superheated clouds of volcanic ash that travel up
to 50 mph and can instantly incinerate anything in their path.
Raymundo Punongbayan, director of the volcanology institute, urged
residents of villages up to 5 miles away along the mountain's
southeastern side to evacuate. As of noon Thursday, more than 18,000
people had left 18 villages, said Cedric Daep, head of the Albay
provincial disaster management office.
Judel Mirandilla - a 14-year-old student from the village of Bonga,
which lies in the path of possible pyroclastic and lava flows - said
he was roused from his sleep shortly after 1 a.m. by thunderous
explosions and flashes of light from the mountain.
"We became so scared we decided to leave. Other people were waking up
our neighbors to evacuate," he said.
Authorities canceled all flights to Legazpi, the airport closest to
the volcano, located about 215 miles southeast of Manila in Albay
province.
The volcano's repeated explosions indicated that magna is still rising
to the dome and volcanic activity could continue for some time, said
Juan Cordon, a research specialist at the volcanology institute.
For about a week, the 8,118-foot mountain famous for its cone-like
shape has been emitting ash plumes and occasional flows of lava. The
crater's lava dome has swelled, releasing molten rocks the size of a
room down its slopes.
The volcano has been showing signs of unrest since June, spewing
ash-laden smoke high in the sky several times last year. An explosion
in September forced more than 5,700 people to flee their homes.
On Feb. 1, 1814, Mayon's most violent eruption killed more than 1,200
people and buried an entire town in volcanic mud flows. Its last
eruption in February 1993 killed more than 70 villagers.
-- run (faster@faster.faster), February 24, 2000.
