KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent and the Grenadines – A volcano in the southern Caribbean that has been dormant for decades erupted on Friday, spewing ash clouds and smoke for miles.
The volcano, known as La Soufrière, at the northern tip of the main island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, started showing signs at the end of December. It moved in an “explosive state” On Friday morning, the National Emergency Management Organization in a Twitter post.
The eruption occurred a day after officials raised the warning level after a few small quakes detected at the volcano, with steam clouds erupting from the peak. The country’s prime minister, Ralph Gonsalves, has ordered a complete evacuation of the area.
“All arrangements have now begun and the process has begun,” Mr. Gonsalves said at a news conference Thursday.
“I want to urge all our people to be calm – do not panic,” said the prime minister. “With God’s grace we will get it very well.”
According to officials, nearly 20,000 people were evacuated from the area around the volcano on Friday morning.
The people on the main island of St. Vincent have been on the fringes for months for fear of an eruption.
Some still vividly recall La Soufrière’s last eruption, in 1979, which swept thousands of feet of debris alive, but thanks to a hasty regular evacuation of residents to local beaches, had no fatal consequences. Its ashes reached as far as Barbados, 100 miles east. In an earlier eruption, in 1902, nearly 1,700 people died.
Cecilia Jewett, 72, a road supervisor at the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines government, said she suffered through the eruption in 1979 and recalled scenes of panic and the desperate rushing to water, the sky darkened by ash and the overwhelming stench of sulfur. According to her, her father experienced the deadly event in 1902 and told stories of victims buried in ashes, and corpses lying in the streets.
“The stories come to mind when I hear that La Soufrière is performing,” she recalls when she was interviewed in December last year. “It’s just too much. These young people would not understand it. They think it’s just an explosion. ‘
“The sulfur, which it does to your eyes, your breathing, your existence,” she continued. “It was a time I did not want to relive.”
Government officials began reaching out in areas closest to the volcano last winter and informing residents about evacuation protocols in the event of an eruption, Mr. Gonsalves said in an interview in January.
The prime minister then acknowledged the challenges of emergency operations during the pandemic, but said strict health protocols – such as the mandatory use of masks and social distance where possible – would be in place during evacuations and shelters.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines have a population of 110,000 spread over three dozen islands. Most people live around the capital, Kingstown, on the southwest coast of the island of St. Vincent. Although known as a boat paradise, the country also has a lot of poverty and unemployment.
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Ernesto Cooke reports from Kingstown, and Oscar Lopez from Mexico City.