Pinatubo Volcanic Debris Kills 13 in Philippines

Steaming avalanches of volcanic debris cascaded down the slopes of Mt. Pinatubo on Friday, swamping more than a dozen villages and killing at least 13 people, officials said.

Seven people were missing after the volcanic muck swept through 14 villages 20 miles southeast of Pinatubo, Defense Secretary Renato de Villa said.

Nine people died in Bacolor and four bodies were recovered in nearby Porac, said Lucia Gutierrez, a social welfare officer in Pampanga province. The towns are about 40 miles north of Manila.

At least 1,000 houses were buried in the avalanche, regional disaster officials said. Volcanic debris is like quicksand when wet but hardens like cement as it dries.

Officials said as many as 29,733 people were affected but only about 20% had been evacuated to government shelters.

“It came suddenly,” said Lucas Nuque, a minibus driver from Bacolor who was among hundreds of people seeking shelter in San Fernando, a few miles north of Bacolor.

Raymundo Punongbayan, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, said he suspects the avalanche was caused by a breach in a lake formed in the upper slopes of the volcano during the 1991 eruption.

Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption in June, 1991, believed to be the biggest volcanic eruption this century, killed at least 800 people and spewed ash that altered weather worldwide.