ReliefWeb

Mt. Mayon in Albay province, 330 km southeast of Manila, one of the most active volcanoes in the Philippines, erupted on 24 February 2000. The Philippines Institute of Volcanology and Seismology had declared an alert at Level 3 on a scale of five the previous week. Prior to the eruption, local authorities had declared a six-kilometre radius from Mayon's summit as a danger zone and ordered the evacuation of thousands of villagers living on the slopes of the volcano. As of 24 February 2000, more than 29,000 people had reportedly been evacuated, including some 5,000 people who had evacuated in advance. (OCHA, 24 Feb 2000)

The seismic monitoring network detected 17 low-frequency volcanic earthquakes and 11 episodes of high frequency short duration tremors; the emission rate of sulphur dioxide had decreased from 9,000 tons per day to 5,900 tons per day. By 23 March, the number of evacuees shrunk to 5,751 families, which comprised of 27,849 people who were temporarily living in 24 evacuation centres. Agricultural damage, including the loss of farm animals, was estimated at PHP 89.9 million (approximately US$ 2.2 million). (OCHA, 23 Mar 2000)