Volcano, Storm Create Terror in Philippines : Evacuation: Thousands flee as pumice and ash pour down. Earthquakes and rain add to the misery.

Hundreds of thousands of people fled in terror Saturday from the combined wrath of an angry volcano, repeated earthquakes and a fierce typhoon that washed out bridges, destroyed homes, flooded villages and scattered thick ash for hundreds of miles.

In an awesome display of nature’s power, day turned black as midnight by midafternoon across central Luzon and as far south as Manila as a relentless, hard rain of golf-ball-sized pumice, pebbles and ash poured down. Thunderclaps and jagged streaks of lightning alternated with brilliant orange flashes from nearly nonstop eruptions of Mt. Pinatubo.

The last 900 U.S. personnel were evacuated from Clark Air Base, deserting one of America’s oldest and largest overseas bases for the first time since World War II. Officials also decided to begin evacuating up to 8,000 dependents now taking shelter at Subic Bay Naval Base, where the sun never appeared Saturday and up to a foot of volcanic ash fell.

“As of right now, there’s no U.S. security at Clark,” Stanley Schrager, a U.S. Embassy spokesman, said late Saturday. “They’ll go back and look tomorrow at first light. If it gets light.”

At least 10 minor volcano-driven earthquakes rocked the area and were felt 60 miles south in Manila, where gray-white ash covered the capital’s streets, cars and rooftops like snow. The international and domestic airports were closed until further notice because of volcanic ash in the atmosphere.

Bizarre wind patterns heightened the difficulties. The typhoon, which weakened to a tropical storm as it swept north of the volcano, drew low-lying clouds of ash to the north and east, while prevailing winds carried higher plumes to the south and west. The effect was to dump a blanket of nontoxic silicate ash across most of central Luzon.

As conditions worsened Saturday night, Philippine civil defense officials broadcast warnings to at least half a million residents of 27 towns and scores of villages in five provinces in central Luzon to flee what they predict will be even more catastrophic eruptions of the long-dormant volcano.

Scientists said a 1.8-mile-long fissure that has opened on Mt. Pinatubo’s southern slopes raises the grim possibility that the 4,795-foot volcano now may blow itself apart, blasting deadly debris for miles and triggering massive avalanches of super-hot gases, volcanic fragments and rocks far into the surrounding countryside.

“We are picturing a worst-case scenario,” said Ronaldo Arboleda of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. “The situation is really dangerous. . . . We are not gods, but based on our studies, something not good is about to happen.”

“It can go any time, any time now,” agreed Glenda Besana, another government geologist.

The volcano, which was dormant for 611 years, became active last April and began minor eruptions last weekend. Major eruptions started Wednesday and have grown steadily more violent each day since. At least 10 blasts were recorded Saturday until instruments broke down, Besana said.

The government’s evacuation order included parts of both Angeles city, which is outside Clark Air Base, and Olangapo, beside the Subic Bay Naval Base. More than 28,000 Americans, including 14,600 evacuated Monday from Clark, are taking shelter at the giant Navy base.

Subic spokesman Robert Coble said no decision had been made to evacuate the base, which is about 21 miles southwest of the volcano. But families who were earlier evacuated from Clark will be flown back to the United States as soon as transport planes and chartered civilian airliners can land here.

“Continuing volcanic activity, uncertainty over how long the danger will last and severe overcrowding at Subic have combined to necessitate the removal, which will take place over the next few weeks,” an embassy statement said.

Several buildings at Subic collapsed from the heavy blanket of stones, mud and ash, and electric power was switched off as ash fell into base generators, officials said. Philippine officials also shut down numerous power relay stations because of the ash, plunging Angeles, Olangapo and surrounding areas into darkness.

Part of a hospital collapsed in Olangapo, as did two crowded bus stations there and in Angeles. Rescuers used chain saws and acetylene torches in Angeles to free scores of people pinned in the rubble. Dozens of schools, buildings and houses also were reported destroyed.

Raging rivers, swollen by the typhoon-driven rains, washed away at least four bridges and carried pieces of homes and furniture roaring downstream. At least 19 people were confirmed killed and 50 injured, but the casualty toll was expected to grow.

In an evening announcement, the Philippine office of civil defense extended the volcano’s danger zone from 18 miles to 25, and urged residents of Olangapo to head south into the Bataan Peninsula. People in Angeles were told to head north and east to seek shelter.

“It’s very bad weather, it’s very dark, and there are mild earthquakes all the time,” said Ernesto Rivera, civil defense director. “You can imagine how difficult it is to travel.”

Indeed, as mud and then a fierce hailstorm of pea-sized pumice reeking of sulfur began pelting down at 2:30 p.m. in Angeles, tens of thousands of people frantically clambered aboard anything with wheels and began to flee on ash-slickened roads in pitch-black darkness.

Dump trucks and flatbed trucks carried hundreds of bedraggled refugees, coated brown from the mud and huddled miserably under tarps and umbrellas. Some hung on hoods and trunks, or clung desperately to the sides.

“We must run away,” said Roger Pineda, whose wife, Rosario, fearfully clutched their 3-month-old infant under a tarp as a rain of gravel clattered down. “The volcano is coming.”

Others rode bicycles, motorcycles, buffalo carts and other vehicles in what quickly became a nightmarish traffic jam on the two-lane MacArthur Highway heading south. Trees cracked and fell on all sides from the weight of the volcanic debris, halting bumper-to-bumper traffic for hours at a time. The road repeatedly shook from earthquakes, and lightning and eruptions eerily lit the sky in a hellish display.

“It’s like the end of the world,” said Van Punzalan, a 34-year-old farmer who drove his wife and two children on a tarp-covered motorcycle and sidecar.

Nearby, mud-covered and barefoot Arno Lusung, 21, drove his motorcycle behind a truck carrying his wife and children. “I forgot my shoes,” he said. “We just ran.”

An aging dump truck filled with 20 women and children had a man on the roof holding a flashlight and an umbrella in a vain attempt to keep the windshield clear. In the rear, Rahina Ramirez, 46, wept as she huddled under a mud-covered umbrella with four children.

“I pray to God, I pray to God,” she wailed over and over as a dry rain of coarse sand poured down. Ash was three inches deep on the ground, and formed a viscous, concrete-like muck.

Catalino Pinlac Jr., a shopkeeper, wore a diver’s face mask as he drove through the blinding storm. He was headed, he said, for anywhere away from the volcano that had destroyed his home in a hail of softball-sized rocks.

“We don’t know where to go,” he said.

Officials had no estimates of the day’s damage, including the effects of up to a foot of sticky ash, mud and rocks on the fertile fields and lush rice paddies that were nearing harvest in the nation’s agricultural heartland.

“We are poor,” said Titus Manabat, 22, a farmer. “And one thing’s for sure. By the time this is done, we’ll be much poorer.”