“Explosive eruption at La Soufrière,” tweeted NEMO. Ash plumes up to 6,000 feet to the east, it added.
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent and the Grenadines on Thursday issued a disaster alert following a change in eruptive activity at La Soufrière volcano, NEMO said.
The island was put on red alert, meaning an eruption “was imminent,” said NEMO.
“Please exit the red zone immediately. La Soufrière has erupted. Ash drop recorded as far as Argyle International Airport,” he said.
On Friday, Dora James, director general of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Red Cross, told CNN that the eruption sounded like a “big jet engine” and that there was a “constant stream of smoke” from the ash plume.
Boats and some vehicles picked up last-minute evacuees from the area shortly after the blast, she said. James has also been evacuated from the area, but returns to see if there is any damage.
She said there are currently phone lines nearby because so many people are calling to get news and look for someone who may be lagging behind.
James lived through the April 1979 eruptions and remembers them well. She said the 1979 eruptions caused more fires and explosions of ash.
Kenton Chance, a freelance journalist, told CNN he was about five miles from Le Soufrière volcano in the town of Rosehall on St. Vincent.
“Normally you have an impressive view of the volcano,” he said. “But you can’t see it because of the amount of ash in the air.” Ash was still falling, but in diminishing amounts, he said.
Chance heard a rumble from the mountain when he arrived, but it has since gone down.
Evacuation orders were carried out in about a dozen districts of St. Vincent, affecting about 6,000 to 7,000 people, a spokesman for the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Center, or UWI-SRC, told CNN.
While on his way to Rosehall, Chance said he witnessed a number of people stopping by the side of the road, which he believes were evacuees.
He said he had not seen any reports of property damage, injuries or deaths so far.