Speaker - Kyffin Roberts - Eruption of Mt Pinatubo

On the subject of natural disasters Club member Kyffin Roberts has first-hand knowledge of such a world-shaking event.

In 1991, while resident and working in Manila, the Philippine capital, Kyffin and his wife Patricia endured the volcanic eruption of Mount Pinatubo, which is situated 70 miles north of Manila.

Kyffin had his online audience enthralled with a calm and considered description of what was a climatic – and climactic – event of huge proportions. It had been 500 years since the previous eruption. On June 15 of 1991, the Roberts returned from shopping to find their housekeeper terrified as she announced, “This is maybe the end of the world!”

She had heard news of the impending disaster as the volcano erupted but also collided with an enormous typhoon storm. This had worsened the consequences of the eruption by spreading lava, rock and ash over a much larger area than was anticipated and laying waste to everything in its path.

The following morning, said Kyffin, it looked like there had been a snowstorm. In fact the city was covered in white volcanic ash.

In some areas closer to Pinatubo, the ash was measured at 200 metres in depth. Massive areas of forest and farmland were destroyed, never to recover. This was also a disaster for the Aetas people, a tribe of indigenous natives who inhabited the forests around Pinatubo and also worshipped the mountain as their God. Their way of life was snuffed out forever and almost 400 of the Aetas lost their lives in the eruption.

Kyffin was instrumental in helping to set up camp accommodation for the Aetas survivors and paid regular visits to supply food, clothing and other necessities. He told of one young Aetas girl, named Maribel, who was eventually adopted by Belgian friends of the Roberts and taken to a new life in Europe. And…she ended up graduating from Elmwood College in Cupar some years later.

Kyffin was also headhunted to plan and supervise the exit of some 6000 US servicemen and their families from the Subic naval base which was situated not far from Pinatubo. It took some six months to complete a complicated and difficult transition. The US Clark Air Base nearer to the eruption had been wiped out and the staff there evacuated from the Philippines immediately after the eruption. After a presence of 100 years, the American military left the Philippines for good.

Kyffin showed a folio of photographs taken at the time. They showed huge devastation and made quite an impact, as did the statistics associated with the disaster. 8000 homes were destroyed, 12 million people affected by the event – and the height of Mount Pinatubo was decreased by 260 metres.

George Donaldson thanked Kyffin for an extremely interesting and well-presented talk.