Oplan for Mt. Kanlaon

The Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council-Technical Working Group or RDRRMC-TWG for short has recently set to complete the date to finalize the Oplan Mt. Kanlaon contingency plan.

What is Oplan Mt. Kanlaon?

Since a few months, the Mt. Kanlaon in Canlaon, Negros Oriental has shown signs of ash eruption and ground heat rises. According to the Office of Civil Defense-NIR Assistant Regional Director Aletha Nogra, the plans and measures should be in place in case Kanlaon volcano erupts, with the volcano now showing signs of abnormalities.

The first meeting for the Oplan Mt. Kanlaon was held here in Dumaguete City in order to get more opinions and ideas for the preparation and awareness program. The RDRRMC-TWG reviewed their contingency plan for Mt. Kanlaon since it needed the collection of data to urgently make it functional.

Since the November, last year, the RDRRMC has been closely monitoring on the activities of the said volcano.  As of the moment, Mt. Kanlaon remained under Alert Level 1 status since November.

Nogra said the data is critical, especially those coming from local government units that would be directly affected if major eruption do occurs.

Predictions?

According to Nogra, more than 50,000 individuals are expected to be affected if preperations aren’t made. Of this number, 16,046 individuals are from Canlaon City, 12,260 from La Carlota City, and 25,717 from La Castellana. Otther parts on the Negros Island Region (NIR) will possibly be affected if eruption will be extreme.

Damage in these areas, such as households and other infrastructures, facilities and agriculture will also be huge if the eruption alert level will be raised to 4.

“In worst-case scenario, the affected areas may force residents to evacuate, but in the meantime, massive advocacy and information campaign will be intensified to make the residents ready in case of emergency,” said Nogra.