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Health Fears Raised After Thousands Flee Restive Philippine Volcano
Legaspi, Philippines (AFP) Aug 14, 2006 Health officials warned Monday of the growing risk of disease as thousands crowded into evacuation centres around the simmering Mayon volcano in the central Philippines. More than 44,000 people have already been moved out of a eight-kilometer (five-mile) danger zone around the volcano, said the provincial disaster monitoring office. Abundio Nunez, a disaster monitoring official, told AFP more people were coming into the centres every day. "Our initial priority had been to get people off the slopes of Mayon. Now they're drifting in from villages in the lowlands," he said. In the 27 evacuation centres there are growing fears of disease due to overcrowding, with as many as 50 people sleeping in a single room. Provincial health officer Chito Mendoza said that so far there had been no fatalities from either the volcano or from illness. Mendoza said authorities are concerned about sanitation at the shelters as well as access to safe drinking water. "We have teams that visit" each evacuation center to detect any trend in the rise of certain diseases, Mendoza said. Health clinics manned by midwives and sanitary specialists are also in place at every center. Mendoza said children were being immunized, mainly against measles, typhoid and other infectious diseases. So far there have been only 71 cases of respiratory infection, 30 cases of hypertension, 21 cases of asthma and 13 cases of diarrhea at the centers, he said. President Gloria Arroyo has said that the government is aiming for a "zero-casualty" figure in the latest eruption of Mayon, whose previous activity has claimed about a thousand lives over the years. Arroyo had earlier ordered the delivery of prefabricated structures and tents to relieve pressure on the evacuation centers. Mendoza said many of the evacuated people were "clannish" and did not want to be housed in a different center than the rest of their neighbors. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) warned the threat now is from fast-moving masses of hot gas, ash and rock -- called "pyroclastic flows" -- rather than lava. The southeast sector of the 8,070-foot (2,460-meter) volcano, facing the town of Santo Domingo, would be "more susceptible to small pyroclastic flows generated by the explosions" because part of the volcano's crater rim had collapsed in that direction, Phivolcs said in an advisory. The volcano recorded eight explosions on Sunday, up from four on Saturday, an indication of growing activity. Mayon's eruption in 1993 killed 77 people due to pyroclastic flows which engulfed farmers working on the slopes. Despite the imposition of the danger zone villagers continue to evade roadblocks to work on their farms and guard their homes. A team of television journalists who had covered the eruption were killed on Sunday when their car struck a bus while they were returning to Manila from Legaspi city.
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Despite Quiet Start, Authorities Warn Of Active Atlantic Hurricane Season
Miami (AFP) Aug 8, 2006Despite a comparatively quiet start, the current Atlantic hurricane season is likely to produce an above-normal number of storms, US weather authorities warned on Tuesday. "We are not off the hook by any means," said retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher, who heads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). |
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