Thick volcanic ash has turned day into night across 87 villages in Albay province as Mayon volcano continues to send lava flows, pyroclastic surges, and choking plumes down its slopes, forcing nearly 200,000 people from their homes in what has become the Philippines’ largest volcanic displacement crisis since Mayon’s own 2018 eruption.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) has raised its alert to Level 3, indicating that the volcano is in a “relatively high level of unrest” with the potential for hazardous eruptions. Officials have described the current phase as unstable, warning of further explosive activity and additional pyroclastic density current (PDC) events. Lava deposits collapsing from the summit have generated fast-moving pyroclastic flows that officials say can incinerate anything in their path, with flow distances reported at approximately 3.8 kilometers from the crater, according to summaries of PHIVOLCS monitoring data cited in Associated Press reporting from the region.
Displacement numbers and what they reflect
The Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Disaster Response Operations Monitoring and Information Center (DROMIC) recorded 102,406 affected individuals across 87 barangays as of its May 3 situation report. That same bulletin noted that the national Response Cluster had convened an emergency meeting and that food packs and non-food relief items were being pre-positioned across Albay.
The broader figure of nearly 200,000, reported by the Associated Press, likely reflects a later count or a wider definition of “affected” that includes people sheltering with relatives, stranded in roadside encampments, or still inside their homes but exposed to dangerous ashfall and volcanic gases. In fast-moving volcanic emergencies, official tallies from local government units often lag behind reality by hours or even days, particularly when roads are blocked by debris and communications infrastructure fails under layers of ash.
Both figures should be understood as credible snapshots taken at different moments rather than contradictory claims. Displacement in Albay has been climbing steadily, and the AP reported that more than 5,400 residents fled ash-choked areas in a single short span during late April and early May 2026.
Voices from the evacuation centers
“We could not see the sun at all. It was like midnight at noon, and the ash was so thick my children could not breathe,” said Maria Santos, a mother of three from Barangay Mabinit in Legazpi City, who arrived at a school-turned-shelter carrying only a bag of clothes and her family’s identification documents. Santos said her family had less than 30 minutes to leave after a neighbor relayed the evacuation order by megaphone.
Albay Governor Noel Rosal urged residents to comply immediately with evacuation directives. “Do not wait for the second warning. Pyroclastic flows do not give second chances,” Rosal told reporters during a briefing at the provincial disaster operations center in mid-May 2026.
Relief workers echoed the urgency. “We are running low on sleeping mats and hygiene kits. The shelters were set up for hundreds, not thousands,” said Jonas Reyes, a field coordinator with the Department of Social Welfare and Development, describing conditions at an evacuation center in Daraga, Albay. Reyes added that supply convoys were being delayed by ash-covered roads and poor visibility.
What it looks like on the ground
Residents near Mayon’s lower slopes have described skies so dark from ashfall that streetlights triggered during midday hours. Fine gray particulate has coated rooftops, vehicles, and crops across a wide swath of the Bicol region, and visibility in the worst-hit barangays has dropped to near zero during heavy ash episodes. Local officials have urged residents to wear masks and seal windows, warning that fine volcanic particulate poses serious respiratory risks, especially for children, older adults, and people with pre-existing lung conditions.
Evacuation centers, many of them public schools and covered courts, are absorbing thousands of families. The DROMIC report aggregates totals but does not yet detail access to clean water, medical care, or sanitation at individual shelters. That gap matters: ashfall can contaminate open water supplies, and overcrowded shelters without adequate sanitation raise the risk of waterborne disease outbreaks. Relief agencies and local government units are working to distribute supplies, but the full picture of humanitarian conditions inside the 87 affected barangays remains incomplete as of late May 2026.
Satellite evidence confirms the scale
Independent satellite observations back up what ground-level reports describe. NASA’s Earth Observatory, drawing on Landsat 8 data, has captured Mayon’s active thermal signatures, showing glowing lava channels and ash plumes extending well beyond the summit. Those images are consistent with the darkness reported in nearby communities and confirm the physical extent of the hazard through thermal and visible-light bands.
Satellite imagery is powerful for verifying how hot, how far, and in which direction volcanic material is traveling, but it cannot count evacuees or determine whether relief goods are reaching isolated villages. For that, ground-level reporting from DROMIC, the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC) Region V, and humanitarian organizations remains essential.
Echoes of 2018 and the risk ahead
Mayon is one of the most active volcanoes in the Philippines, with more than 50 recorded eruptions over the past four centuries. Its most recent major event before the current crisis came in January 2018, when lava fountaining and pyroclastic flows forced roughly 90,000 people into evacuation centers across Albay. That eruption lasted weeks and left agricultural land buried under ash, devastating the livelihoods of farming families who depended on the fertile soil around Mayon’s base.
The current displacement already exceeds the 2018 figures by a wide margin, and the seasonal calendar adds another layer of danger. The rainy period in the Bicol region typically begins around June, and heavy downpours can mobilize the thick ash deposits on Mayon’s slopes into lahars, or volcanic mudflows, that travel far beyond the current hazard footprint. Lahars follow river channels and can inundate low-lying communities that were never directly hit by lava or pyroclastic flows. Disaster managers will need to update hazard maps, reinforce early-warning systems along drainage channels, and prepare for the possibility that tens of thousands of evacuees could face weeks or months of displacement.
Why Albay’s lahar season could extend the crisis through mid-2026
PHIVOLCS continues to monitor Mayon around the clock and issues public bulletins that include updated alert levels, exclusion zone boundaries, and hazard assessments. With the alert at Level 3 and eruptive activity still unstable, communities within the expanded danger zone should treat any evacuation order as urgent, not precautionary. Pyroclastic flows travel at speeds that leave almost no time to react once they begin, and they generate temperatures and ash concentrations that are unsurvivable at close range.
Evacuees already in shelters should monitor official PHIVOLCS and local government channels for updates on relief distribution, shelter capacity, and any changes to exclusion zones. With the rainy season approaching and volcanic instability persisting, the crisis around Mayon is far from over. The coming weeks will test not only the volcano’s behavior but the capacity of Philippine disaster agencies, local governments, and international partners to sustain a response that is already straining resources across the Bicol region.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
