The shelters in Albay province were never built for this. Five months into Mayon Volcano’s latest eruption, more than 70,000 Filipino families are still living in evacuation centers, school gymnasiums, and government buildings across the province, many of them crammed into facilities now buckling under extreme tropical heat. Outside, the volcano keeps building.
Mayon’s current eruptive episode began in January 2026 and has not stopped. As of late May 2026, the eruption has persisted for 133 consecutive days, a stretch that surpasses any previously recorded period of continuous activity at the volcano, according to chronologies maintained by the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program, which compiles PHIVOLCS-reported data into a standardized historical record. Mayon has erupted dozens of times since records began in 1616, but none of those episodes matched this duration of sustained unrest.
What the volcano is doing now
The eruption has been defined by persistent lava dome growth at Mayon’s summit, punctuated by rockfalls and pyroclastic density currents, the fast-moving avalanches of superheated gas and debris that rank among the deadliest volcanic hazards on Earth. Teresito Bacolcol, the Philippines’ chief volcanologist, has described lava accumulating and swelling the dome to the point of instability, producing the collapses that send pyroclastic flows racing down Mayon’s flanks, according to Associated Press reporting.
PHIVOLCS confirmed sustained volcanic unrest in a formal eruption update on February 10, 2026. NASA Earth Observatory satellite imagery corroborates the January 2026 onset and shows persistent thermal anomalies at the summit consistent with active lava effusion and dome building. The combination of ground-based monitoring and orbital data leaves little doubt that Mayon has been continuously active throughout the period.
The eruption initially forced the evacuation of about 3,000 people when activity intensified early in the year. That number has grown dramatically as successive pyroclastic flows and rockfalls have threatened additional barangays within and near Mayon’s extended danger zone.
290,000 displaced and counting
Two government reporting systems track the humanitarian toll, and their figures reflect different slices of the crisis. A DROMIC situation report logged 30,522 families (102,406 people) affected across 87 barangays as of May 3, 2026. That count captures a specific geographic and temporal snapshot tied to the most recent pyroclastic density current events and the areas immediately within Mayon’s hazard zones.
A broader tally from the Department of Social Welfare and Development puts the cumulative figure at more than 70,000 families and more than 286,000 individuals affected since the eruption began. The gap between the two numbers likely reflects differences in scope: DROMIC’s count appears to track a narrower reporting window, while the DSWD total aggregates all affected populations over the full five months, including families who may have cycled in and out of formal shelters. Neither agency has published a reconciliation of the two figures, which means the precise number of people sheltering at any given moment remains an approximation.
What is clear is the scale. Nearly 290,000 people have been displaced in a province where evacuation infrastructure was designed for short-term emergencies, not months-long crises.
Heat inside the shelters, fire outside
The DSWD has acknowledged a problem that compounds the volcanic emergency: extreme heat is turning evacuation centers into health hazards of their own. The agency has been working to retrofit shelters with improved ventilation and cooling measures while simultaneously distributing relief supplies, a dual burden that stretches provincial resources and forces aid workers to manage both volcanic and climate-related risks at the same time.
No public statement from the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council for Bicol (RDRRMC V) has addressed whether existing evacuation infrastructure can sustain displaced populations for weeks or months longer if the eruption continues. Temporary learning spaces set up for displaced children, health services operating inside the centers, and water and sanitation systems all face strain that grows with each passing week. The question of additional funding or facility upgrades remains unanswered in the public record.
Is this eruption unprecedented?
Mayon is one of the most active volcanoes in the Philippines, with more than 50 recorded eruptions since 1616. Its most destructive event, in 1814, buried the town of Cagsawa and killed more than 1,200 people. More recent major eruptions in 1984, 1993, and 2018 each lasted weeks to months and produced similar hazards: dome growth, pyroclastic flows, and lahars during rainy seasons.
The 2026 episode’s 133-day continuous run exceeds the duration of those prior events based on the Global Volcanism Program’s compiled chronology. However, no published scientific analysis has yet compared the cumulative energy release or lava effusion volume of the current episode against earlier multi-month eruptions. That means scientists can confirm the duration is record-setting while stopping short of declaring the eruption the most intense or voluminous in Mayon’s history.
Whether the current activity signals a shift in Mayon’s long-term eruptive behavior or falls within the range of its historical patterns is a question volcanologists have not yet answered publicly. The data to make that determination exists in PHIVOLCS’ daily monitoring logs, but those records have not been released in a form that allows independent comparative analysis.
What displaced families are facing
For the tens of thousands of Filipinos still sheltering across Albay, the uncertainties are not academic. Families face daily decisions about whether to remain in crowded, overheated evacuation centers or attempt returns to homes that may sit within active hazard zones. Farmland and small businesses inside the exclusion area remain off-limits, cutting off livelihoods with no clear timeline for when access might be restored.
The most reliable guidance available comes from PHIVOLCS hazard assessments, which determine alert levels and exclusion zone boundaries, combined with DSWD and DROMIC administrative records that track where displaced populations are sheltering and what resources they need. As of late May 2026, neither the volcano nor the bureaucracy has offered a clear signal that the crisis is approaching its end.
Mayon, with its near-perfect cone visible from across the Bicol region, has shaped life in Albay for centuries. This time, it is reshaping it for longer than anyone alive has seen.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
