More than 2,500 Kanlaon Volcano camp-weary evacuees in Negros have decamped and gone home this week, officials said on Thursday, Jan. 9.
They have been living in evacuation camps since Kanlaon Volcano erupted on Dec. 9.
In La Castellana 622 families with 1,969 members had returned to their homes outside of the 6-kilometer Kanlaon danger zone as of Thursday afternoon, Mayor Rhummyla Nicor Mangilimutan said.
That is just a partial list, she said.
The evacuees returned to barangays Sag-ang, Mansalanao and Cabagna-an in La Castellana, John de Asis, head of the town’s Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, said.
There were 461 evacuees in Bago City who went home on Wednesday, while 48 remained at the Regional Evacuation Center, Dr. Merijene Ortizo, Bago City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Officer, said.
There were also 19 evacuee families in La Carlota City and 278 in Canlaon City who went home, Donato Sermeno III, Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Negros Island Region head, said.
The Office of Civil Defense would rather have the evacuees from outside Kanlaon Volcano’s 6-kilometer danger zone moved to a tent city rather than be allowed to go home, OCD 6 (Western Visayas) Director Raul Fernandez, Task Force Kanlaon chairman, said at a press conference on Wednesday, Dec. 8.
It would be better for the La Castellana evacuees to move to a tent city in Himamaylan City to ensure their safety should Kanlaon Volcano erupt again, he said.
Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said he would like to hear from Fernandez personally what the OCD’s plan is for the tent city, and hopefully they can meet next week..
“First of all I want to hear how are we going to maintain them (the evacuees) in the Tent City, whose responsibility will it be,” Lacson said.
The return of evacuees living beyond Kanlaon Volcano’s 6-kilometer danger zone is allowed within the guidelines set for Alert Level 3, Lacson pointed out.
The evacuees also know that if Kanlaon’s alert level is raised to four they will have to evacuate again, Lacson said.
He said “because they are living beyond the 6-kilometer radius it has been getting more difficult to make them understand why they are inside the evacuation centers.”
“It only tells us that they are getting tired already (of living in evacuation centers)…right now they feel that they are better off in their areas because they are beyond the 6-kilometer radius…they are better off back there in terms of livelihood,” he said.
He also wants to know where the budget of P15 billion a month for the evacuees under Alert Level 4 will come from, Lacson said.
It will cost P15,311,398,700 a month to care for 124,053 evacuees under Alert Level 4, Fernandez said on Wednesday.*