St Vincent volcano: PM asks people to remain calm as smoke blankets Caribbean island

Extremely heavy ashfall rained down on parts of St Vincent on April 10 and a pungent sulphur smell enveloped communities on Caribbean island as rescuers ran pillar to post to help those affected by the recent volcanic eruption. On Friday night, for the first time since 1972, the La Soufriere Volcano erupted spewing bouts of molten lava and ash. While there are no reports of casualties or injuries reported as yet, at least 16,000 people have been evacuated and stuffed into government-owned facilities.

In the aftermath of the explosion, neighbouring countries of Antigua and Guyana have offered to help either by shipping supplies or by temporarily opening the borders of the evacuees. On Sunday, the island’s rescuers provided food, water and shelter to the evacuees. Conditions worsened overnight, blanketing homes, cars and streets in a thick sheet of smoke and soot.

'Remain calm and protect yourself'

Speaking to NBC Radio, the country’s Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, asserted that rescue forces were now hunting out ways to remove the ash but added that it would take a minimum of four months to clear out. “It is difficult to breathe,” he said but asked people to “remain calm” and ‘keep protecting themselves from coronavirus.” He also reckoned that agriculture would be badly affected due to the eruption and people would have to “lose some animals” and “repair their houses” but they will build it back ‘better, stronger, and together.” 

Ashes and hot gravel spewed out after an explosive eruption rocked La Soufriere volcano on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent on Friday, April 9. As per experts, the first explosion shot an ash column 32,000 feet into the sky with the majority of the ash headed towards the northeast into the Atlantic Ocean. Before it blew, the government ordered people to evacuate the most high-risk area around the 4,003-foot (1,220-meter) volcano after scientists warned that magma was moving close to the surface.

A man rides his bicycle past fields covered with volcanic ash a day after the La Soufriere volcano erupted, in Kingstown, on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent, Saturday, April 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)

(Inputs and promo image credit: The Associated Press)