According to the Associated Press, a recent flurry of activity at the Manaro volcano on Ambae island raised fears that a major eruption was imminent, forcing the evacuation of the entire population. Most of the evacuees are being transported by boat or airlifted to other islands in the 80-island chain that stretches some 800 miles. The process should take about a week.
The volcano on the island located between Australia and Hawaii has been active since 2005, but an increase in activity, including rocks and gas spewing from the volcano, prompted authorities to raise the activity to Level 4 for the first time over the weekend, indicating a "moderate eruption" risk, the second highest level in Vanuatu's volcanic alert system.
“There’s ash, fire, stones and lava being thrown out from the mouth of the volcano,” Shadrack Welegtabit, the director of Vanuatu’s National Disaster Management Office, said Tuesday of the recent activity. “There’s a lot of activity going on.”
Welegtabit noted that it's impossible to say whether there will be a major eruption, but it was better to be cautious.
“With the seismic machine, we can measure what’s happening but we can’t really predict what the volcano will do next,” he said.
Australia's ABC News reports that the government of Vanuatu approved $2 million in funding to provide food, shelter and water for evacuees.
With the northern and southern areas of the island most at risk, villagers there have been moved to shelters in eastern and western regions.
"The priority now is shelter, water and food, and also looking at health," Augustine Garae, disaster management coordinator for the Vanuatu Red Cross, told ABC.
Vanuatu's Meteorology and Geohazards Department said people living within 4 miles of the volcano continue to be subjected to airborne rocks and volcanic gas. The agency added that acid rain could damage crops in the area of the volcano.
Vanuatu, which sits on the Pacific's Ring of Fire, is home to roughly 280,000 people. The island nation is frequently subjected to volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes and is ranked by the United Nations University's Institute for Environment and Human Security as thecountry most at risk for natural disasters in the world.
Evacuations Ordered on Bali
Approximately 134,000 people fled their homes earlier this week and are in 500 shelters after another volcano threatened people living on the Indonesian island of Bali, the AP reports.
Mount Agung, in the northern region of the island that is home to 4.2 million, could erupt anytime, authorities say. The volcano has been at its highest alert level since Friday.
Volcanologists say recent activity suggests an eruption is more likely than not, but can't say when that might happen.
"I would definitely be following the advice to stay outside the exclusion zone," Heather Handley, an assistant Earth sciences professor at Sydney's Macquarie University, told AP. The increase in tremors suggests an eruption is "imminent," she added.
(weather.com)