I WAS with fellow historians on our way back to Manila from Tayabas, Quezon last Sunday, January 12, when at 3:06 p.m. a friend sent me a Facebook message saying, “Taal Volcano erupted Alert Level 2.” At 3:28 p.m., a live video from a certain Rossani Recreo Sarile was sent to me showing how high the volcanic clouds were rising. And when I looked out the car window passing by Calauan-Bai Road, I saw how high the actual cloud was even if we were quite a distance from Taal Volcano. At about 5:20 p.m. when we reached Calamba, Laguna, the ash had started to fall, and we had zero visibility while traversing the South Luzon Expressway and had to stop to get water. I never knew I would ever witness an ash fall again. By 7:30 p.m. Alert Level 4 had been raised. I thought to myself, “that escalated quickly.”