People who had not heeded the authorities’ initial announcement to leave the area closest to a volcano on the Caribbean island of San Vicente fled in a hurry Saturday, a day after the La Soufriere volcano had a powerful, earth-shaking eruption registered, and caused clouds. of ash and covered the island with a layer of fine volcanic rock.
Friday’s eruption, the first of any major magnitude since 1979, turned the island’s towns and cities into sad, gray versions of themselves. A strong smell of sulfur was inevitable on Saturday and the ash covered practically everything, seeping into houses, cars and even the nose, hiding the sunlight that makes this island so popular with tourists.
Chellise Rogers, who lives in the village of Biabou, in the San Vicente area considered safe, said she could hear a continuous roar.
“It’s exciting and terrifying at the same time,” he noted. “(It’s) the first time I’ve witnessed a volcanic eruption.”
Scientists warn that the explosions could last for days or even weeks, with the worst yet to come.
“The first eruption isn’t necessarily the largest this volcano will give off,” Richard Robertson, a geologist at the University of the West Indies Center for Seismic Research, said at a news conference.
About 16,000 people were forced to flee the ash-covered communities with only personal belongings that they could put in suitcases and backpacks. However, so far there have been no reports of deaths or injuries from the first or subsequent blasts. Before the eruption, the government ordered the population to remove the area most at risk around the 1,220-meter-high volcano, after scientists warned that the magma was approaching the surface.
Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of the 32 islands that comprise Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, said in an interview with NBC Radio, a local broadcaster, that the population should remain calm, be patient and try to protect themselves from the coronavirus. He added that authorities are trying to determine how to collect and dispose of the ashes, which covered an airport runway near the capital, Kingstown, about 20 miles to the south, and even spread to Barbados, about 190 kilometers (120 miles). ) to the east.
“Agriculture will be seriously affected, we could lose some animals and we will have to make repairs to the houses, but if we have life and strength, we can rebuild better, stronger and together,” said the prime minister.
People who chose to stay in the area after the initial eviction rushed to do so on Saturday. A small number of ash-covered people left the area on board small boats and made their way to parts of the island, which represent about 90% of the country’s total territory.
Nations from Antigua to Guyana offered to send emergency supplies to their neighbors or open their borders temporarily to populations forced to flee the area near the volcano.
The volcano, which last erupted in 1979, continued to roar as experts warned that explosive eruptions could last for days and possibly weeks. About 1,600 people died in the records registered in 1902.
Gonsalves said that, depending on the damage caused by the explosion, the return to normal could take up to four months. On Friday, 2,000 people stayed in 62 government shelters, while four empty cruise ships waited nearby to transfer other evacuees to nearby islands. Those staying in government accommodations were tested for the coronavirus, and those who test positive are transferred to an isolation center.
The first explosion occurred on Friday morning, a day after the government ordered a mandatory evacuation based on warnings from scientists, who discovered seismic activity before dawn on Thursday, meaning magma was approaching the surface. The eruption threw a column of ash more than seven kilometers high, with lightning flashing above the massive cloud of smoke late Friday.
Due to volcanic activity, several flights were canceled and the ash restricted evacuations in some areas due to poor visibility. Authorities warned that Barbados, Saint Lucia and Grenada could receive a light ash shower as the 1,220-foot volcano continued to roar. Most of the ash is expected to go northeast to the Atlantic Ocean.
La Soufriere already had an exuberant eruption in December, causing experts from the region to travel to the island to analyze, among other things, the formation of a new volcanic dome and changes in the crater lake.
In the Eastern Caribbean, there are 19 active volcanoes, including two submarines off Grenada Island. One of them, Kick ‘Em Jenny, has shown activity over the years. The most active are the Soufriere Hills in Montserrat, which have been in constant eruption since 1995, devastating the capital, Plymouth, and killing at least 19 people in 1997.