The Aftermath

On it's own, Mt. Pinatubo caused a butt-load of damage. With the appearance of Typhoon Yunya on the very same day the volcano erupted, things got worse. 309 people were killed by roofs collapsing from the weight of the water soaked ash. Many more were to be killed and houses buried in the coming months.

And where'd everyone go? Well, most everyone were shipped out aboard Navy vessels to the island of Cebu. There we boarded C-141's to Guam. After about a 24 hour stay in Guam, people were flown to the U.S. to various aerial ports on the west coast. The U.S. presence at Clark AB officially ended in November 1991.


No, it's not snowing in the Philippines. Ash turned to mud and golf-ball sized rocks rained down on us for several hours. With the typhoon whipping the ash around, by noon the sky was as dark as night. Coupled with electricity and water being knocked out (and stayed out for weeks), things got pretty scary.



Here's a parking lot on Subic Bay about two days after the eruption. Most people had to leave their cars in the Philippines and file a claim with the government upon their arrival at their next duty station.



A view down the road from my hotel in Olongapo 2 days after the eruption. On the left is a building which was the first to collapse in our area.



Ah! Nothing like eating a cold MRE after a nice volcanic eruption! This is me and my bud Bryan Smith outside of our hotel having lunch, and washing it all down with some hot water out of a Windex bottle. Hadn't showered for about a week at the time of this photo, being that the water was off. We had to walk about a mile to Subic Bay and find a container to get water to bring back for drinking, brushing our teeth, etc.


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