The layer is so thick that it looks like snow.
However, it is indeed a carpet of ash that covers the houses and streets of the island of Saint-Vincent, in the Caribbean.
After four decades of sleep, the Soufrière volcano erupted for the first time on Friday causing columns of smoke more than 8 km high and the evacuation of nearly 20,000 inhabitants.
A new volcanic eruption was reported Sunday morning, causing blackouts in the vast majority of the country.
"The extremely large ash fallout and the strong smells of sulfur are now reaching the capital," Kingstown in the south of the island, the local emergency response agency tweeted on Saturday, urging people with respiratory problems to remain caulked . “There is a deadly silence outside,” said Vynette Frederick, who lives in this large city whose floors, buildings and vehicles were covered in a thin layer of whitish dust. The ash cloud began to move east about 175 km away, approaching the neighboring island of Barbados where residents have been urged to stay in their homes, according to the Caribbean Response Agency. emergency room. It could reach the island of Martinique, located 200 kilometers from Saint-Vincent.