Mayon’s 2018 eruption brings back memories of Pinatubo 1991

It all came rushing back.

The putrid, bad egg-like smell of sulfur, the rumbling sound and the occasional but barely felt shaking of the ground.

I just arrived in Legazpi City, Albay to cover the eruption of Mayon Volcano but already everything felt quite familiar.

After a bone jarring 12-hour land trip from Manila, we were greeted with an ash fall and within a few hours, a mushroom cloud rising up from the cloud-covered peak of Mayon Volcano.

Suddenly, it was 1991 all over again.

I can still vividly remember. It was June 12, 1991. We were gathered at the San Marcelino Town Plaza in Zambales for an Independence day program when we saw a huge mushroom cloud rising up from Mount Pinatubo 30 kilometers away.

For a few seconds, everyone was transfixed, in awe of how huge the ash column was, slowly rising up above the clouds, forming what looked like a huge twisted cane struck on the ground from the sky.

The town of San Marcelino was outside the evacuation zone, but looking at the mushroom cloud that day, everyone felt vulnerable.

For the next few days, it was hell on earth.

Day turned into night. Ash, sand and small pumice stones rained down as if the world was coming to an end.

The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo eventually became the second largest eruption in the world in the 20th century.

Standing at an evacuation center in the town of Santo Domingo in Albay, I saw the same worried look from the faces of residents who just very recently evacuated after the danger zone was extended to nine kilometers.

A boy pointing at the mushroom cloud could very well had been me almost 26 years ago.

But it quickly dawned on me, Mayon was different.

Residents of Albay have gotten used to the regular eruption of their iconic symbol.

And despite, or because of its regular eruption, Mayon Volcano has remained standing, majestically, maintaining its perfect cone.

Mount Pinatubo was not as lucky.

From being the highest peak in the Zambales mountain range, the volcano was reduced to almost a third of its height, losing a thousand feet of elevation.

Two volcanoes, two different outcomes.

But for someone who experienced both natural phenomena, the feeling was familiarly the same.

I just hope Mayon will never do a Pinatubo, and remain as beautiful as it is, a natural reminder of the power and energy stored underneath us all. —KG, GMA News