BACOLOD City – This city is ready to extend assistance to local government units (LGUs) affected by the eruption of the Mount Kanlaon on Tuesday morning, April 8.
Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez has instructed Dr. Ana Maria Laarni Pornan, head of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO), to prepare the aid to be delivered to the Kanlaon eruption victims.
As of this writing, Pornan said they were coordinating with the Negros Occidental Provincial Government for the turnover of the food and non-food assistance to the affected residents.
“We will turn over the items on Friday, April 11, to the province, including medicines and masks from the City Health Office,” Pornan said. “It’s up to the province to determine the affected areas for the distribution of the assistance.”
Data from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Region 6 showed that as of April 10, 13,710 families or 44,648 individuals across 24 barangays of Bago City, La Castellana, Moises Padilla, La Carlota City, Murcia, San Carlos City, and Pontevedra were affected.
Meanwhile, following of the eruption, this capital city remained on blue alert for intensified monitoring despite being unaffected by volcanic ashfall or hazard.
The explosive eruption of Mt. Kanlaon occurred at 5:51 a.m. on Tuesday. It lasted 56 minutes based on seismic and visual recordings.
According to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), the eruption produced a dense ash plume approximately 4,000 meters high, drifting southwest, and pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) have been observed descending the volcano’s southern slopes. Ashfall has already been reported in barangays Roberto Salas Benedicto, La Granja, Nagasi, Yubo, Ara-al, San Miguel, and Cubay in La Carlota City; barangays Mailum, Ilijan, and Binubuhan in Bago City; and barangays Sag-ang and Mansalanao in La Castellana in Negros Occidental.
Sulfurous fumes were also experienced strongly in Barangay Cubay and faintly as far as the province’s Hinigaran town./PN