Volcano danger worsens 2 days after towering blast
KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent — Conditions worsened on Sunday at a volcano on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent as residents reported loud rumbling, lightning, heavy ashfall and power cuts.
The eruption Friday of La Soufriere forced many residents to evacuate their homes, though some remained in place. The rumbling was heard in the capital of Kingstown, about 20 miles south of the crater.
“I’m just here wondering when it’s going to calm down,” resident Kalique Sutherland said.
The eruption could continue for some time, said Prof. Richard Robertson, the lead scientist at the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Center.
“It’s likely that at some point it would quiet down and hopefully we would have a break so that we could recover a little bit more, but don’t be surprised if after the break it picks up like this again,” Robertson said.
The last major eruption of the volcano was in 1979, while a blast of the 4,003foot volcano in 1902 killed 1,600 people.
About 16,000 people have had to flee their ashcovered communities. However, there have been no reports of anyone being killed or injured by the initial blast or those that followed.
Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of the 32 islands that make up the country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, has said people should remain calm and keep trying to protect themselves from the coronavirus. He said officials were working on collecting and disposing of the ash, which fell as far away as Barbados, about 120 miles to the east.