Experts warn that the very next typhoon could dislodge another 40 to 60 million cubic meters of lahar from the sides of Mt. Pinatubo. We are pleading with these people to evacuate. There are sure to be three or four major typhoons before the season ends at Christmas. Locals are listening with one ear only. They are particularly angry that protective dikes put in place over the past four years have not proved up to the task.
Officials acknowledge the barriers have been ineffective.
Many were shoddily constructed, they concede. In many cases, the lahar burst through, swamping communities that were thought to be safe. Many of these contractors don't even own a single piece of machinery. U.S. geologist Kelvin Rodolfo agrees that money has been unnecessarily spent on dikes. It would have been better, he says, to have distributed the Mt. Pinatubo Commission millions between resettlement and protection.