OCD: Canlaon City under state of calamity due to Kanlaon Volcano’s eruption

Canlaon City in the province of Negros Oriental has been placed under a state of calamity following the eruption of Kanlaon Volcano, the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) said Tuesday. 

“We were told that the city of Canlaon in Negros Oriental already declared a state of calamity pero [but] we have yet to receive ‘yung kanilang [their] official copy of the resolution,” OCD spokesperson Edgar Posadas said in a Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon interview. 

Earlier, Canlaon City Mayor Jose Chubasco Cardenas headed a local disaster risk reduction and management meeting where they discussed the recommendation to declare a state of calamity in the city. 

This comes after Kanlaon Volcano emitted plumes that rose to 5,000 meters on Monday.

Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) said the eruption of Mt. Kanlaon began at 6:51 p.m. with the volcano sending a vertical plume into the atmosphere. The eruption lasted 6 minutes and was followed by a relatively strong volcanic-tectonic earthquake.

Five barangays in the city were affected by the volcanic eruption, namely Pula, Masulog, Malaiba, Lumapao, and Linothangan. 

Cardenas earlier issued an executive order declaring an immediate mandatory evacuation of all residents living within three meters from the rivers downstream from the volcano to designated evacuation centers. 

“[T]he rivers downstream from the volcano are at risk of flash floods, mudflows, and other hazards due to volcanic ash deposition and potential lahars,” the order read. 

Alert leveln 2 has been raised at Kanlaon Volcano meaning its increased unrest driven by shallow magmatic processes could eventually lead to “further explosive eruptions or even precede hazardous magmatic eruption.”

As of Tuesday morning, a total of 1,562 individuals or 210 families in the province of Negros Occidental were transferred to evacuation centers following the volcanic eruption, according to the provincial disaster risk reduction and management council (PDRRMC).

Some flights were canceled on Tuesday, June 4, due to the eruption of Kanlaon Volcano, airport authorities said.

Since 1866, all of Kanlaon's eruptions, except one, were phreatic in nature. In 1902, Kanlaon had a strombolian eruption, which is a "moderately explosive eruption of basaltic magma with moderate gas content." 

—VAL, GMA Integrated News