Dramatic footage of recent Mayon eruption

(28 Jun 2001)

1. Various aerial shots of Mayon volcano
2. Pilots inside helicopter
3. More aerials of volcano
4. Ground shot of volcano as it emitted ash puff
5. Military trucks and soldiers on standby
6. Various of people at evacuation center
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Francis Bichara, Governor Albay province
"They (the Albay residents) are very resilient and very patient people. So, that is one thing we appreciate. Well, of course there are some complaints but they can easily be settled."
8. Wide shot of calm volcano

STORYLINE:

Five days after it first began to erupt, a dense white cloud of noxious gases shrouded the Mayon volcano in the Philippines on Thursday as ash clouds, swollen with rain, hung precariously above farmers who continued to toil near its foot.

A helicopter ride halfway up the two-thousand and 474-metre (eight-thousand and 118-foot) volcano early in the day revealed a rock face lined with fresh scorches, gouges and pockmarks.

The cratre has spewed hundred of boulders and five (M) million cubic meters (180 (M) million cubic feet) of lava, at temperatures of one-thousand degrees Celsius (one-thousand and 830 degrees Fahrenheit), since Sunday.

Steam pouring from within the bubbling magma hid the summit in a cloak of sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and hydrosulfuric acid.

Scientists said heavy rain late on Wednesday and early Thursday added to the weight of large ash deposits on the side of the volcano and could trigger a mudslide, threatening the huts on the vegetable fields below.

Despite the danger, many of the 41-thousand evacuees returned home for the day on Thursday to tend to their farms, ignoring scientists warning that the steaming wet volcanic ash could cascade down on populated areas.

However, most returned at night to the 28 evacuation centres set up in schools, churches and public buildings in nearby Legazpi in the Albay province.

Volcanologists said the number of the volcano's seismic tremors dropped on Thursday making immediate volcanic activity difficult to predict, but they warned it was likely to erupt again in the next two weeks.

Mayon, a well-known tourist attraction because of its near-perfect conical shape, has erupted at least 47 times since 1616.

It worst known eruption occurred in 1814 when an ash mudflow buried a town, killing 12-hundred people.

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