Kingstown, St Vincent and the Grenadines
Reuters
The Caribbean St Vincent island was hit by another explosive event from the La Soufriere volcano early on Sunday, triggering power cuts and water outages in some areas, while ash clouds began to blanket parts of the island of Barbados.
After decades of inactivity, the volcano erupted on Friday, spewing dark clouds of ash some 10 kilometres into the air and prompting an evacuation of thousands of people on the island. The volcano has continued to rumble and vent ash since then.
Ash covers palm trees and a church a day after the La Soufriere volcano erupted after decades of inactivity, about eight kilometres away in Georgetown, St Vincent and the Grenadines, on 10th April in a still image from video. PICTURE: Reuters/Robertson S Henry/File photo.
On Sunday morning, St Vincent’s National Emergency Management Organisation said there was a huge power outage after “another explosive event” at the volcano. However, by 12pm power had been restored, residents said.
“Explosions and accompanying ashfall, of similar or larger magnitude, are likely to continue to occur over the next few days,” the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre said on Twitter.
St Vincent and the Grenadines, which has a population of just over 100,000, has not experienced volcanic activity since 1979, when an eruption created approximately $US100 million in damages. An eruption by La Soufriere in 1902 killed more than 1,000 people. The name means “sulfur outlet” in French.
Finance Minister Camillo Gonsalves said the government believes about 20,000 people will be internally displaced for about three to four months.
“Historically, the volcano keeps going intermittently for a couple months,” he said. “Most crops on island will be lost, and untold livestock.”
Ash covers roads a day after the La Soufriere volcano erupted after decades of inactivity, in Kingstown, St Vincent and the Grenadines, on 10th April. PICTURE: Reuters/Robertson S Henry
Some houses in the island have also collapsed due to the weight of the ash, Gonsalves added.
In the tourist island of Barbados, about 178 kilometres from St Vincent, the meteorological services agency said varying intensities of ash were impacting the island. Videos posted on social media showing a thin layer of ash coating cars and even the country’s airport, which remains closed.
