“Explosive eruption at La Soufrière,” NEMO tweeted. “Ash plumes leading up to 20,000 feet east,” it added.
The premier of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, issued a disaster warning on Thursday due to a change in eruption activity at La Soufrière volcano, NEMO said.
The island was on a red alert basis, meaning an eruption ‘is now imminent’, NEMO said.
“Leave the red zone immediately. La Soufrière erupted. Ash fell as far as Argyle International Airport,” he said.
On Friday, Dora James, director general of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Red Cross, told CNN the eruption sounded like a ‘big jet engine’ and that there was a ‘constant stream of smoke’ coming from the ash plume.
Boats and several vehicles picked up evacuees from the area shortly after the blast, she said. James also evacuated from the area but is on his way back to see if there is any damage.
She said there are currently telephone lines stuck in the area because so many people are calling to get news and look for someone who has been left behind.
James went through the eruptions in April 1979 and remembers them well. She said the eruptions in 1979 had more fires and ash champions.
Kenton Chance, a freelance journalist, told CNN he was about five miles from the volcano Le Soufrière in the town of Rosehall on St. Vincent af.
“Normally you would have a very impressive view of the volcano,” he said. “But because of the amount of ash in the air, you can not see it.” If still fell, but in declining quantities, he said.
Chance heard rumbling from the mountain when he got there, but it has calmed down ever since.
In about a dozen districts of St. Vincent, who affected about 6,000 to 7,000 people, has been evacuated, 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 saw a number of people stop along the way, who he said were evacuated.
He has so far said he has not seen any reports of property damage, injuries or deaths.