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The Province of Albay is located around 500 kilometers south of the capital Manila, Philippines. Its geographical location has made the province vulnerable to natural calamities that it has been called the “Vatican of disasters” by one of its former governors (Salceda, 2013).
The hazards that Albay face are both natural (climatic and geologic) and man-made (e.g., industrial hazards that may result in fire and explosions). The most destructive seasonally recurring rapid-onset natural hazard is the tropical cyclone (Van den Bosch & Bird, 2018). This is “a rotating, organized system of clouds and thunderstorms that originates over tropical or subtropical waters and has a closed low-level circulation” (National Hurricane Center, n.d., para. 1). Most of the around 20 tropical cyclones that enter the Philippines every year pass through or near the province (Uy, Takeuchi, & Shaw, 2011). In fact, in a 58-year period, 86 cyclones have passed within a 50-kilometer radius from Albay.
The heavy rains brought by cyclones, or any instance of torrential rains, cause flooding in the province (Province of Albay, n.d.). This is because three quarters of the province’s lands have an elevation of only 300 meters and below. This has been exacerbated by rapid urbanization in flood plain areas, where forests have been converted to agricultural lands. Eight municipalities and two cities are classified as vulnerable (Salceda, 2013). Urban flash flooding occurs in the cities, like in the provincial capital Legazpi (Barcia, 2018).
Strong rains also cause mudflows, especially on the slopes of Mayon Volcano. This is the Philippines’s most active volcano and is located in a United Nations (UN) Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (2016) biosphere reserve. Mudflows are very destructive, one of which buried hectares of lands in Daraga town in June 1995.
Another effect of tropical cyclone is storm surge, defined as “the abnormal rise in seawater level during a storm, measured as the height of the water above the normal predicted astronomical tide” (National Ocean Service, 2017). An example of this was the surge in Bacacay town during the onslaught of tropical cyclone Sisang on November 27, 1987. The height of the waves could be surmised through the sight of a boat trapped on top of a coconut tree. Its irregular and non-structured coastline makes Albay vulnerable to storm surges, especially the eastern seaboard or the villages facing the Pacific Ocean.
Ironically, if too much water is a hazard in Albay, so is the lack of it. Among the hazards in the province, droughts have the greatest potential economic impact and can affect the largest number of people (Malonzo, Naz, Ninofranco, Daep, & Mascariñas, 2018). They have a direct and significant impact on food production and the overall economy. This is because as much as 6,000 hectares of rice farms in Albay are still rain-fed and not fully irrigated (Amo, 2014). The state weather bureau Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (2016) defines drought as “three consecutive months of way below normal (>60 percent reduction from average) or five consecutive months of below normal (21-60 percent reduction from average) rainfall condition” (slide 2).
Aside from climatic hazards, Albay also has geologic hazards—the foremost of which is volcanic eruption. The province is home to Mayon Volcano, “the world’s most perfect volcanic cone because of the symmetry of its shape” (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 2018, para. 1). In the last 500 years, there have been at least 50 eruptions—the latest of which was in 2018 (Oliphant, 2018). The most destructive recorded eruption was in 1814, when villages were buried and around 1,200 people killed (Oregon State University, 2018).
Volcanic eruptions are indicated by its associated hazards, such as pyroclastic density current, ash flow, volcanic quakes, mud flow, bush fire, volcanic avalanche, and lava flow. The effects on life and property vary according to the type of ejected materials and the extent of deposits. Ashfall causes land pollution, air crashes (total damage to aviation engines), building collapse (especially flat-roofed structures), and total soil damage. Pyroclastic flow composed of 50 percent gas and 50 percent boulders travels at great speed and burns everything in its path. This results in land scouring and radiation (dying of slopes). Lava, magma, or molten rock ejected by the volcano is dangerous as it destroys the land but is less threatening due to its slow movement. Mudflow, popularly called lahar, is a mixture of water and volcanic matter.