PHILIPPINES: PEOPLE EVACUATED FROM BOTOLAN AFTER SCIENTISTS WARN THEIR HOMES MIGHT BE SWAMPED BY WATER DRAINED FROM NEARBY VOLCANO

Record ID: 208478

  • Title: PHILIPPINES: PEOPLE EVACUATED FROM BOTOLAN AFTER SCIENTISTS WARN THEIR HOMES MIGHT BE SWAMPED BY WATER DRAINED FROM NEARBY VOLCANO
  • Date: 4th September 2001
  • Summary: BOTOLAN, PHILIPPINES (SEPTEMBER 5, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV EVACUEES LEAVING THEIR HOMES AND CARRYING CHILDREN AND BELONGINGS TO BUS (2 SHOTS0 0.14 2. SLV EVACUEES BOARDING BUS 0.24 3. VARIOUS, EVACUEES CARRYING BELONGINGS/ SOLDIERS HELPING TO LOAD LUGGAGE ONTO BUS (3 SHOTS) 0.44 4. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) BOTOLAN MAYOR RODRIGO YAP SAYING: "Right now, everybody is aware of the danger. But it's really up to them if they don't want to evacuate -- but we will still convince them to evacuate." 0.57 5. VARIOUS, RESIDENTS LEAVING ON SITTING ON BACK OF TRUCK WITH BELONGINGS (4 SHOTS) 1.21 6. WIDE OF MAN LOOKING AT WATER LEVEL IN BUCAO RIVER 1.28 7. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Filipino) RESIDENT ROBERT GALLARDO SAYING: "What I'm worried about is our things which we will leave behind if we're forced to leave. So my decision is to have the women evacuated, but the men should stay to secure our things. Anyway, the evacuation site is just across this bridge." 1.58 8. AERIAL OF BUCAO RIVER WHERE WATER FROM THE CRATER LAKE WILL BE CHANNELLED (3 SHOTS) 2.13 PINATUBO, PHILIPPINES (RECENT) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 9. VARIOUS VIEWS OF PINATUBO CRATER LAKE (3 SHOTS) 2.27 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 19th September 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BOTOLAN AND PINATUBO, PHILIPPINES
  • Country: Philippines
  • Reuters ID: LVA7TMRBBE79ETIBZV3NNMMNK6UZ
  • Story Text: Hundreds of families, riding on army trucks, buffaloes
    and horses have begun an exodus from a Philippine town after
    scientists warned their homes might be swamped by water
    drained from a nearby volcano.

    But some residents of Botolan are refusing to leave.



    Soldiers on Wednesday (September 5) supervised the
    evacuation of Botolan, a farming town of 40,000, a day before
    engineers were to release millions of cubic metres of water
    from the swollen crater-lake of Pinatubo, 40 km (25 miles)
    away.

    An emergency canal has been dug through a wall of the
    crater to direct the waters down river channels and into the
    South China Sea. But scientists said there was a 20 percent
    risk Botolan might be swamped by floods if the volume of water
    freed exceeded estimates.

    About 2,000 people died when a crater-lake breached on the
    Casita volcano in Nicaragua in 1998 buried two villages in a
    matter of minutes.

    By late morning on Wednesday, about 3,000 residents of the
    interior villages of Botolan had been evacuated to government
    buildings and school houses in adjacent towns but hundreds of
    other villagers refused to abandon their homes.

    Botolan Town mayor Roger Yap acknowledged on Wednesday
    (September 5) it might not be possible to forcibly evacuate
    those who did not want to leave.

    "Right now, everybody is aware of the danger. But it's
    really up to them if they don't want to evacuate -- but we
    will still convince them to evacuate," Yap said.

    Some peasants rode out of their villages on horseback.

    Others scrambled aboard wooden carts driven by carabaos (water
    buffaloes), or squeezed themselves into pedicabs.

    Some, clutching plastic bags containing their life
    possessions, plodded out of their villages on foot.

    The refugees took with them anything they could carry --
    from cooking pots and television sets to pet dogs and cats.

    Soldiers and police helped others shove their beds and
    refrigerators into the trucks.

    Vulcanology institute said the draining operation,
    involving the use of a high pressure pump, would start at 7
    a.m. on Thursday (2300 GMT Wednesday). The operation was
    intended to liberate 24 million cubic metres of water from the
    lake but vulcanologists say there was a risk that far greater
    amounts of water might surge out and endanger Botolan.

    Scientists decided on the draining operation after
    surveys showed the crater-lake's surface was less than two
    metres (6.5 feet) from the crater's rim following weeks of
    heavy rains.

    But some residents feared the looting of their property
    more than flood waters.

    "What I'm worried about is our things which we will leave
    behind if we're forced to leave. So my decision is to have the
    women evacuated, but the men should stay to secure our things.

    Anyway, the evacuation site is just across this bridge," said
    Robert Gallardo, who lives near the canal where the water will
    be channelled.

    Under the plan, the lake waters to be released on Thursday
    would be made to flow down a canal which local tribesmen have
    been digging since mid-August at the crater rim.

    More than 800 people died, mostly from diseases in
    overcrowded evacuation centres, when the 1,445-metre
    (4,667-feet) high Pinatubo last erupted in 1991.


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