By: Staff Writer
April 20, 2021
There is good news, bad news and surprising news coming out of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) and the country’s woes with the La Soufriere volcano that has not had activity in over 40 years but decided to erupt over the past several months.
The good news is in SVG is that no one has died as a result of the volcano yet. A volcano that has seen mountains of ash reach as far as Barbados some 100 plus miles to the east of the country. Despite all of the damage, terror and scrambling as a result of the volcano finally erupting earlier this month after showing signs of increased activity since last year December, no one has been reported seriously injured or have died in the ensuing chaos, eruption and subsequent evacuation of the red zone.
There goes the good news, now for the bad news. The bad news is that water supplies have been affected significantly. However, the water systems have been clogged by the ash. There is little fresh water on the island, but crews from the Central Water and Sewerage Authority (CWSA) have been working tirelessly to try to get water turned back on and get the drains unclogged so the island can have fresh water.
A video was circulating on social media last week of a truck carrying bottled water being mobbed by residents who needed fresh drinking water as the humanitarian toll continues to climb. With hurricane season just a few short months away, SVG needs to get past this and be able to get ready for any potential storm that may come their way.
There was also very strange news coming out of SVG as an effect of the La Soufriere eruption. Apparently, some residents have decided not to evacuate the red zone area around the volcano and have decided to ride it out despite the heavy ash fall and pyroclastic flows making the area hard to penetrate for rescue teams.
One source in SVG told Caribbean Magazine Plus that: “The people are feeling that this eruption is making things very uncomfortable right now. With some of them it’s just the idea of not knowing what you will go back to in terms of your home. There were a couple of people who did not leave the red zone at all.”
They also told us that some people did not want to move and said that there were others who decided to get out of the red zone very late when they saw things start to get “really bad.” There are still people left in the red zone now with rescue teams trying to determine how many and who is ready and able to be moved to safety now.
There were organised evacuation trips just last week with Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves urging persons still held up in the red zone to evacuate as a matter of urgency. Prime Minister Gonsalves will be taking a team of journalists into the red zone this week to see first-hand how much damage has been done by the eruption and to check on survivors.
The big eruptions have not apparently stopped for now with the last eruption happening on April 18 at 1:00pm. Prior to that there was an eruption on April 13, with a previous eruption happening on April 11, 2021 at 1:00 am, followed by a power outage in the North Eastern part of SVG. Power was restored at 6:00 am in Green zone said the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO).
Seismic activity also continued on April 13 causing mudslides in certain parts of the island and while the volcano alert level is still red, NEMO also said that the time between eruptions are getting further and further apart.