15 January 2020 | ADRA Philippines reported that it has completed a first round of disaster response assessments in the area surrounding the Taal Volcano in the Batangas province of the Philippines that erupted Sunday afternoon.

“Based on our assessments in the evacuation centers and consultation with the MSWDs (Municipal Social Welfare Departments), the urgent unmet need that we will be catering to is the need for bedding kits in the evacuation centers,” said an update on the ADRA Philippines Facebook page.

The agency said that while food, water and used clothing are still needed by evacuees, bedding kits are the priority for ADRA as most evacuees are currently sleeping on cardboard boxes.

The Southern Asia-Pacific Division (SSD) headquarters, the Adventist World Radio-Center for Digital Evangelism (AWR-CDE) office, the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies (AIIAS) campus, the Adventist University of the Philippines (AUP), Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) Philippines, 1000 Missionary Movement (1000MM) headquarters, the Cavite Adventist Mission office, and several local churches were blanketed by a thick layer of volcanic ash, according to an SSD news report.

Thousands of families in the Batangas province surrounding Taal have fled the area.

Per an AIIAS Facebook update, some of the campus population has left campus voluntarily to address personal needs or to comply with direction from their embassies. The AUP and 1000 MM campuses were evacuated.

The volcano started spewing ash about 5:30 in the afternoon on Sunday.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) has raised the alert level to level 4, meaning a hazardous explosion is possible very soon.

Minor tremors could be felt in the region, as well as on the AIIAS campus that contains several multi-story apartment buildings.

Image credit: Exec8 – Wikipedia

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

To comment, click here.