The volcano on the Caribbean island of Saint-Vincent is under close surveillance this Saturday, the day after a violent eruption, the first for four decades.
It urgently imposed the evacuation in panic and in a rain of ash of thousands of inhabitants of this territory of the Lesser Antilles, a former British colony, made up of a main island, Saint-Vincent, and, to the south, of the 31 islets of the Grenadines.
A first explosive eruption of La Soufrière occurred Friday morning, causing smoke columns up to 8 km high, followed by a second, smaller, emergency management services reported, launching the alert in this island of 100,000 inhabitants.
The emergency management body also fears that the rain will harden the ash that falls on the island posing a danger to human life, while evacuations had to be interrupted for a while due to the lack of visibility.
Ash fallout was observed as far as the south of the island and Argyle International Airport, closed within an hour of the eruption.
"Once an explosive eruption has taken place, others are likely to occur," recalled the seismic research center of the University of the West Indies, in Trinidad and Tobago, another Caribbean archipelago.
He warned that "the explosive eruption would likely last for several days or even weeks."
This satellite image shows the ash cloud caused by the eruption.
AFP / NOAA
La Soufrière, not to be confused with the Grande Soufrière in Guadeloupe, has not experienced an eruption since 1979. The largest and most devastating eruption occurred in 1902 and claimed more than 1000 victims .
The threat of an impending volcanic eruption in Soufriere prompted the announcement on Thursday of an emergency evacuation order for thousands of residents.
16,000 live in the most exposed “red” areas.
In the middle of the day, Friday, "most of the people living in the red zones of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines were evacuated", according to the Caribbean Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA).
Neighboring islands ready to welcome refugees
More than 2,300 people have taken refuge in 62 emergency shelters and are currently screened and vaccinated against Covid-19 by the Ministry of Health, said the CDEMA.
This vaccination is necessary to be received in other territories of the Antilles.
Evacuees could be taken to shelters on other islands in the archipelago, or in other Caribbean territories and countries that have offered assistance such as Barbados or Saint Lucia.
Antigua and Barbuda stands "ready to receive the evacuees," also said Philmore Mullin, director of the disaster management agency of the neighboring country of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
"We are waiting for the authorities in Saint-Vincent to tell us when they arrive, but we know for sure that they will not be less than 250," he said.
“Between 12,000 and 15,000 people have already evacuated the red zone,” Philmore Mullin also said.
At least four cruise ships from Royal Caribbean and Carnival companies have been diverted to the area to pick up the displaced.
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In Martinique, an island close to Saint-Vincent, "the seismicity of volcanic origin has increased during the last week" for Mount Pelée, announced on March 26 the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Martinique.
On this island of the French Antilles, its eruption of 1902, two weeks after that of Soufrière in Saint-Vincent, left 30,000 dead and wiped off the map the town of St-Pierre, the little Paris of the Antilles.
