State of emergency declared in Vanuatu as volcano eruption displaces thousands

Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-25 19:42:37|Editor: ying
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SUVA, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- Vanuatu declared on Monday a state of emergency on its island of Ambae as the Lombenben volcano continues its eruption, making thousands of local residents homeless.

The volcano, which has been rumbling for weeks, started on Saturday belching ash across much of the Ambae island, blanketing villages and crops in the north and south. forcing local authorities to evacuate more than 5,000 people, or half the island's population, from the affected areas, according to the website of Vanuatu's Daily Post.

Monday's state of emergency comes with immediately release of funding and national resources for support, said Manuel Amu, chairman of the island's disaster committee.

On Saturday, Vanuatu's Geohazards Department raised its alert for Ambae from level three to four, which is classified as a "moderate eruption state," and the volcano's activity had not changed on Monday, with no increase nor decrease in the intensity of the eruption.

Currently, the volcano has blown up ash and dark smoke with a little bit of lava, said Amu, who admitted that it is quite a serious emergency and really a challenging issue for them to move people from their communities into an area with very limited houses and resources like food and water.

Peter Korisa, operations manager at the National Disaster Management Office in Vanuatu's capital city of Port Vila, said that the major hazard at the moment is to do with ash fall and acid rain. They are using whatever resource they have, some local vessels, commercial vessels, as well as the local transport.

"We want to be more proactive before we have to worry about pyroclast (where rocks and other fragments are hurled by the eruption) and stuff like that," he said.

He said authorities were taking actions in case the eruption intensified and the evacuation was compulsory.

About 15 evacuation centers were open in the east and west parts of the island, mostly in schools and community halls.

Ambae's Lombenben is believed to be one of the most dangerously active volcanoes in the world and the Vanuatu authorities were also reportedly preparing for the possibility that the volcano eruption could get worse. If the alert level was raised from four to five, the entire island may have to be evacuated.

The last significant eruption on the Ambae island happened in 2005.

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