after ground clean-up. The roof being intact was due mainly to the heroic efforts of my family who had climbed up on it during the height of the typhoon rains pushing and shovelling the heavy ash\mud off it.
The eruption of Mt Pinatubo was one of the most significant events of my life and perhaps the lives of the majority of the people living in the Province of Pampanga and the surrounding Provinces. For nearly seven and a half years it's aftermath is still being felt. The annual cascade of deadly mudflows called "Lahar" continue to plague the people of Central Luzon in the Philippines.
Here is my version of what happened and it's effect on my life.
Click
HERE for a better look at some photos taken by ME of the
effects on our house and HERE for more professional photos BEFORE and AFTER
of Clark Airbase and it's surroundings.
On Saturday the 16th of June 1991 my family was preparing to
go to a local swimming pool for a picnic to celebrate the birthday of
my neice. Around 8am the sky was becoming darker instead of lighter. 9
o'clock came and it seemed as though it was late twilight, the sky
becoming darker and darker. Thick grey clouds were building like before
a thunderstorm. By 10am it was almost pitch black and we realized that
something was drastically wrong. All thoughts of going to a picnic had
by now left our heads. Midday was turned into midnight on a very dark
night. Now we had had word of the calamity that was taking place. The Americans from Clark Air Base (bless their
hearts) had evacuated all their personnel and dependents during the
week before. They had folded their tents and quietly stolen away. At
least that is how it seemed to me. In fact, to be fair, they had
advised the local authorities well in advance. The local officials in
their wisdom had pooh-poohed the idea of a massive eruption and decided
to keep mum about the warning to save any panic on the part of the
populace. NOT THAT ANY OF
THAT MATTERED TO US NOW!. That night the rain from a
typhoon which had unfortunately coincided with the eruption was lashing
the province. Our next door neighbours had sought shelter with us since
their flimsy rattan house was in danger of collapsing. I had taken
solace in my ever present bottle of rum and was hiding under the
shelter of the dining room table. By now the ash from the volcanic
eruption was mixing with the rainwater and forming a deadly combination
of cement-like mud. Around 7pm that night some
village officials had started to advise everyone to evacuate to safer
ground. Where that was, nobody seemed to know. So, we all gathered some
essential items and joined, like sheep, the long march to Angeles City
where we hoped we would find shelter from the devils that were plaguing
us. What we were thinking of when we did this I don't know, because in
hindsight we were perfectly safe where we were. Our first stop after 5kms was the
Angeles City Catholic Cathedral. We stopped there for a little while
but were forced to move on when floodwaters started rising inside the
church. So we went on the road again. This time towards the Provincial
Capital of San Fernando. A further 5kms along the road we came to
another stop which was the Chevalier private school. There we took
final refuge for the night..... in the gymnasium. Next morning the sun was shining
again but the landscape was blanketed with white ash. In fact it looked
like the picture postcards of European winter scenes. In the distance
the huge plumes of smoke and ash still dominated the sky. That
phenomenon would remain for months to come. We returned home vowing not to
leave again. Our animals were eagerly awaiting us. In spite of our vow,
that afternoon we left again. No one was yet sure of our situation. The
volcanic tremors were still continuing which assured us that that the
volcano was still very much active.
We took to the road again, this time carrying more food and supplies,
enroute to San Fernando, where we were assured of a safe place to stay,
out of the way of possible flooding and more danger from the volcano.
San Fernando looked like some God had taken a huge bucket of white ash
and dumped it on everything and every place. Great piles on the
rooftops and huge mounds in the streets. It was everywhere and would
continue to rain down on us for a long time to come. After a day and a night living in
the cramped quarters of our neighbours' friends' house along with many
other refugees, we decided that we would definitely be better off at
our own home and to hell with the consequences.
Besides which, we felt guilty about leaving our animals behind to
suffer on their own. So back home we went, to be
excitedly welcomed by our pets and greeted by the depressing sight of
our house almost hidden under the gigantic piles of ash. All the trees
had lost their branches, snapped off by the weight of the ash. Luckily our roof was still
intact, as was the rest of our house.
The Prelude:
The first rumblings of the
earthquakes were being felt. Since we had endured a massive earthquake
in Central Luzon just 13 months prior to that day we were all
exceedingly nervous.
(Personally I was terrified.)
|
This photo was taken several months later; after ground clean-up. The roof being intact was due mainly to the heroic efforts of my family who had climbed up on it during the height of the typhoon rains pushing and shovelling the heavy ash\mud off it. |
|
The clean up would continue for months yet to come. |
This is not to say that our ordeal was over. Volcanic tremors continued to terrorize me and the ash continued to rain down adding to our already almost intolerable burden.
However we were amongst the lucky
ones.
The plight of the native tribe of the Aetas
whose ancestral lands were completely obliterated by the explosion and
it's aftermath and the annual "LAHAR" terror experienced by most of the
downriver dwellers whose homes were buried time after time by the lahar
waves is enough material for a book.
^Top^
If you have any experiences of your own
concerning Mt. Pinatubo's eruption and the aftermath,
I would love to hear from you.
Created bySteve Innes,{[email protected]} on 11th Feb 1998.Last updated: