According to the country’s National Emergency Management Organization, NEMO, the La Soufrière volcano on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent erupted for the second time on Friday.
According to NEMO’s Twitter account, the second explosive eruption was less powerful than the first, which happened earlier on Friday.
“There has been another blast. The vertical ash column is thought to have reached a height of around 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) in the atmosphere. We will continue to track and update the situation “On its official Facebook page, the UWI Seismic Research Centre, which is collaborating with local authorities, said.
The second eruption, according to Dora James, director-general of the Red Cross of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, is still going on.
She told over the phone from a nearby location, “It’s been over an hour now.” “There’s a lot of ash flying around.”
According to James, there have been no cases of casualties or property damage so far.
According to her, scientists and some locals who did not evacuate are still living near the volcano.
Authorities have stated that explosive eruptions are likely to continue “for days, if not weeks.”
Authorities have warned that pyroclastic flows and surges would impact the areas nearest to the volcano. Teams are gathering information in order to better understand the eruption pattern.
The First Eruption
“In 1979, the La Soufrière Volcano erupted on the second Friday in April (Friday, April 13),” according to NEMO. “On the second Friday in April (9) in 2021, four days before its fourth anniversary, it exploded again.”
The largest island in St. Vincent and the Grenadines chain, La Soufrière, is located there.
Because of a shift in the volcano’s eruptive activity, Prime Minister Gonsalves issued a disaster warning on Thursday. The island has been put on red alert, which means an eruption is “imminent now,” according to NEMO.
“Please exit the red zone as soon as possible. The volcano in La Soufrière has erupted. Ash fell as far as Argyle International Airport, according to reports “According to it,
Earlier Friday, James told that the first eruption sounded like a “big jet engine” and that the ash plume produced a “consistent flow of smoke.”
She said that shortly after the blast, boats and some vehicles picked up last-minute evacuees from the area. James left the area as well but is returning to see if any damage has occurred.
She said the area’s phone lines were crowded because so many people were calling to get updates and check on anyone who may have remained behind.
Terrific Memories Of First Eruption
James witnessed the April 1979 eruptions firsthand and has vivid memories of them. She said that there were more fires and ash mushrooming during the 1979 eruptions.
Kenton Chance, a freelance journalist in the town of Rosehall on St. Vincent, told that he was about five miles away from the volcano.
He explained, “Normally, you will have a commanding view of the volcano.” “However, you can’t see it because of the amount of ash in the air.” According to him, ash was still falling, but in smaller quantities.
When Chance came, he could hear rumbling coming from the mountain.
A spokesperson for the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre, or UWI-SRC, told that evacuation warnings were issued in about a dozen districts across St. Vincent, affecting approximately 6,000 to 7,000 people.
Chance said he saw a number of people stopped on the side of the road, who he thinks were evacuees while driving to Rosehall.
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