Author Topic: Hibok-hibok: Blast from the Past  (Read 698 times)

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Hibok-hibok: Blast from the Past
« on: February 12, 2011, 09:45:11 PM »
THE PHILIPPINES: Tragedy at Hibok-Hibok
Monday, Dec. 17, 1951  



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To the tranquil elders on the tiny Philippine island of Camiguin (pronounced come-agin), volcanoes were both the machinery of God's providence and the crucible of His wrath.

Over the centuries, Camiguin's craters benevolently poured forth soil-enriching lava which made the island abundant beyond the asking. But in periodic moments of ire, the volcanoes visited havoc and death on the people—always, said the elders, because God had been displeased by younger Camiguenos who grew lax in their churchgoing, forgetful of the feast days and neglectful of the sign of the cross. When his children did wrong, an elder would glance fearfully toward the horizon and mutter, "The volcano will get angry."

Grey Path. Twice in recent years, Camiguin's biggest active volcano, a many-cratered, 5,620-ft. monster named Hibok-Hibok (Visayan for hot and bubbling), had gotten angry—once in 1948, again in 1950 when 68 islanders were killed. Always Hibok-Hibok gave warning—two or three days of ominous huffing & puffing that gave Camiguenos time to retreat to safer reaches of the island, or even to take boats to Mindanao, seven miles to the south.

Early one morning last week, Hibok-Hibok got angry again. This time it gave no warning. With a quaking blast it heaved its sulphurous stomach, tossed red-hot boulders bigger than a man across the northeastern portion of Camiguin, sent up clouds of red-hot ash and deadly chlorine. A torrent of glowing molten lava rolled in all directions. Three and a half miles away in Mambajao (pop. 21,000), the island's capital and largest village, children on the way to school, women washing clothes, men on the way to their fields were buried in the rush of lava, burned to death by ashes or killed by gas.

From the scene, TIME Correspondent Carlos Weber cabled this report: "The air was filled with the stench of decaying bodies and sulphur. For miles and miles there was no sign of life—just stony silence and the stripped, twisted forms of ash-grey men, women, children and dogs. In one corner of what used to be a hut, I saw 17 bodies huddled together in death. Two, about eight or nine years old, were hugging each other. About 100 yards away was a carabao, bathed in ash and dead, but still standing. As I left, a chicken crossed my path. Its right side was grey and seared, the other side untouched. It was the only living thing I saw there."

Rescue by Water. In the next four days Hibok-Hibok erupted four more times and threatened to devastate the entire 96-sq.-mi. island. To make matters worse, a typhoon raked the island, impeding rescue operations and killing dozens more. By week's end emergency crews from Manila, 450 miles to the north, and from Mindanao had recovered 266 bodies, estimated that 1,500 more were entombed in lava. The Philippine government used warships, fishing craft, even outrigger canoes to evacuate Camiguenos by the thousands from the island. But many of the elders, unshaken in their belief, refused to leave.

"The old people on this island are fanatics," exclaimed 24-year-old Lucino Balili, who was saying farewell to Camiguin. "This is not God's punishment. It is the work of the devil himself."


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,859453,00.html#ixzz1DkfIpFYp



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