MANILA • An explosive eruption of the restive Taal volcano in the Philippines no longer appears imminent, the authorities said yesterday as they lifted most of a mass evacuation order but warned residents to remain ready to flee.
Warning signs like earthquakes have been steadily waning since Taal burst to life two weeks ago, sending up plumes of ash and lava and forcing over 135,000 people into shelters over fears that a massive blast was coming.
The nation's seismological agency said the steadily shrinking ash and gas emissions were signs of "decreased tendency towards hazardous explosive eruption", leading them to drop the alert by a notch.
The immediate impact of the reduced warning was the lifting of the evacuation order for nearly all the towns that ring the volcano that sits in the middle of a lake and is a big tourist attraction.
"Residents of all towns under lockdown except Agoncillo and Laurel now have the option to return," local governor Hermilando Mandanas told a press conference. But he warned: "There's a possibility that the volcano may still erupt and we should still be ready to evacuate in one hour."
No one is known to have died in the eruption, but the ash it unleashed had earlier forced the brief closure of Manila's main international airport, stranding tens of thousands of travellers.
The volcano shot ash 15km high and spewed lava in the Jan 12 eruption, which crushed scores of homes and killed livestock as well as crops. However, seismologists had warned that the volcano could unleash a much bigger eruption "within hours to days", posing a deadly risk to anyone in a 14km-radius "danger zone".
The volcano island remains under evacuation orders, and the thousands who lived there will not be allowed to return just yet, the government has said.
Taal, located just 60km from Manila, is one of the most active volcanoes in a country where eruptions and earthquakes are a dangerous part of life. Its last eruption was in 1977, but it has a long history of activity.
Despite the risks that the volcano could again erupt, many residents were eager to return home.
"That's where we were born, including my ancestors... so we are determined to go back," Mr Ronald Humarang, a 32-year-old factory worker, told Agence France-Presse.
"I am not really afraid (of an explosion) because during the initial eruption, we didn't evacuate our house immediately."
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
