The Philippine government is on full alert, bracing itself for the possible eruption of the Taal volcano, the second most active in the Southeast Asian nation.

Forced evacuations took place on Sunday and about 8,000 people were moved to safer ground or housed in evacuation centres.

Roads to an evacuation centre in Talisay town on Monday were blocked with police saying that the volcanic ash had made the roads too dangerous to cross.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage but there was no power in affected areas and water was in short supply.

We have to be very cautious," said Pong Mercado, the mayor of Taal town. "The roads are slippery and dangerous. I myself am making plans to move to safer ground."

Volcanology and Seismology Department (PhilVocs) has been monitoring Taal since March last year.

On Sunday, it raised the alert level to 4 out of a 5-point scale and warned of a "possible hazardous volcanic eruption" within hours or days.

'Rained mud and stone'
Bong Agustin was busy tending to the usual crowd of weekend tourists when he first saw smoke coming out of Taal volcano about 6 miles (10km) away from the hotel where he works.

"I didn't think anything of it but around 2pm [06:00 GMT], I looked out the window and saw the clouds coming from the volcano were red," Agustin said. "Then my friends living close to the volcano sent me text messages saying they were feeling tremors."

Then, he says, it started to rain mud and stones.

Winds carried volcanic ash from Taal to coat Tagaytay and neighbouring towns in grey dust.

Large swathes of pineapple fields and farm animals were cloaked with fine volcanic ash, and leaves and tree branches bent beneath its weight.

The ash fall could be felt from as far as the Philippine capital of Manila, about 70km (45 miles) north, and the city's airport had to be closed.

"It [ashfall] wasn't enough to be painful but it had pebbles. It was more scary than painful," said Charina Palacios, a fruit vendor.

Palacios said she was unable to sleep on Sunday night because of continuous tremors that were felt every 30 minutes to one hour.

"I don't know what to wish for. Should I hope that it rains so it could wash away the ash and we can save our fruit plantations? But I heard that the ash contained sulphur so I don't [know] if that will damage our fruits," she added.

Tourist attraction - still
PhilVocs said more frequent and stronger tremors and increased water temperatures around the volcano were possible signs of an imminent eruption.

Authorities are on the watch for possible "volcanic tsunamis" when volcanic eruption filled with rock fragments crash into the water and flood neighbouring towns.

They also warned of possible "base surges" where rocks shooting out of the volcano at up to 80km an hour (50mph) can burn or bury anything they touch.

The risk of an impending eruption and mass evacuations did not keep visitors away from the area - a favoured weekend getaway for city dwellers.

Honey Rose Isturias and her partner came from nearby Cavite to celebrate his birthday and specifically to witness Taal's volcanic activity.

"We climbed Taal last year and saw its crater up close," she said, taking selfies with the volcano in the background. "We thought it would be nice to come back.

"It's a bit scary, but also terrifyingly beautiful," she said, watching the volcano as it spewed out clouds of smoke.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/philippines-alert-volcano-spews-ash-steam-lava-200113050738645.html

One of many reasons i thank God for putting me in a country with less or no natural disasters!

This is serious

People still have time for selfie

Macsjebs:

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/philippines-alert-volcano-spews-ash-steam-lava-200113050738645.html

cc: lalasticlala, mynd44, dominique

Heavenly Father Thank you for making Nigeria natural disaster free!

While in Nigeria ,our own natural disasters are our Political elites with their unbridled greed and lack of empathy for the common man

Different countries with different problems. We no get tornadoes, no hurricanes, no volcanoes, no earthquakes, no snows, no earthquakes, no tsunami, no adverse weather condition.......


Why we no go thank God?





I sha hope my Filipino friend, Catherine "Caturai" Clata is fine...

Hmmm... These are the signs of the coming of Jesus. Matthew 24:6-7.

Hmmm.. It's like someone or something is angry with these Philippines people ooo. Natural disasters too dey worry dem lately. Just late last year, na Typhoon Phanfone abi wetin dem call am. And now this one...

We're lucky we don't experience these things in Naija sha. Only disasters we have here are Politicians and we human wickedness towards each other

mahakexchange:
People still have time for selfie

It's an attention seeking (me, me, me) validation striving generation.

Am blessed to be a Nigerian
All we have to do to survive here is hustle
GOD abeg no shame us

The Asians and Americans battles with natural disasters. While the problem of Africa is LEADERSHIP DISASTER..
Grateful to be an African though...

From my point of view, Africa is blessed beyond measures, hardly any natural disasters

Why is it that Nigeria don't have any of this natural disasters.

This one supposed to be Explorer's thread na

normally you see most ignorant people in Nigeria saying that the west suffer Natural occurrence because of their sins.
but see here, 95% of the population in Philipines are Christians, yet they are about to suffer massive destruction of what the laboured for years for, is it that God does not like them as much as he likes Nigerians ?
or are we not dumb to always attribute everything to God ?
Earthquate, typhoon, cyclone, flooding, landslides, etc will always happen, they are not good or bad, because they don't operate under our laws, to be judge as to whether they are good or bad, they happen because they have to happen.

but as Nigerians, we suffer worst, the whole wildfires in Australia killed jus 24people, but a single herdsmen class on one night in this January in kogi, killed 30people.

the whole Typhone that happened in Japan killed 43people, but a raid by book haram in a night killed 100people... and we will open our mouth and say we are lucky.. I don't know what luck is, but I know what a curse is.

ours suffer much more worse destruction than wildfires, n volcanic eruptions, and Ear quakes...
our own greed and religion induced destructions claim far more greater number of lives.

if it where to b one country I knw, I dnt tnk d will even evacuate there people.

Evacuation simply means a working government...

In Nigeria, u will find out that every body is on d run from most likely ur neighbor who will likely tell u another story about how Boko Haram has slaughtered everyone in d street before urs.

U start running but don't know why.
As u are on the run, musa ur gateman will overtake u that is driving and tell u that the chaos is because Ipob is killing all hausa...

You will most likely find out what happened via twitter or Nairaland after reaching ur village.

Serious

Glory!!! Nigeria is free from such else we all will perish before help would arrive�‍♂️�‍♂️

tck2000:
Heavenly Father Thank you for making Nigeria natural disaster free!

ya..what we have is leadership disaster.I don't which is better.

Rr

......funny how people are beginning to appreciate Nigeria.
this shows Nigerians are hypocrites.

Hmm

Ololanla:
Hmmm... These are the signs of the coming of Jesus. Matthew 24:6-7.

Since when... Not too sure that guy is coming again

God help the displaced people but God really loved us in this country if not the bad leaders that is our own natural disaster!

PreciousDev:
One of many reasons i thank God for putting me in a country with less or no natural disasters!

Yes o. We don't know what we are enjoying in this country.

A sad situation. Philipines already got so many challenges to face and then this one. It is a really hard situation there I must admit.
For the posters above, Philipines is not a corruption free society hence imagine the trauma.

Philippines has one of the most active volcano in the world,well i hope no life was lost