LIVE
begin quote from:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/09/americas/st-vincent-volcano-eruption/index.html
Evacuations continue as volcano erupts on St. Vincent, sending ash 20,000 feet into the air
By Radina Gigova and Paul Murphy, CNN
Updated 2:32 PM ET, Fri April 9, 2021
(CNN)Evacuations on the island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean continued Friday after the eruption of La Soufrière volcano sent ash plumes 20,000 feet into the air, according to the country's National Emergency Management Organization, NEMO.
"Heavy ash fall has halted the process somewhat since visibility is extremely poor," NEMO said, adding it continues to respond "to the many challenges of the process."
"The ash plume extended vertically to about 10 kilometers," Prime Minister Ralph Everard Gonsalves said at a press conference on Friday.
Once there is one explosive eruption, it is likely others can occur and could continue "for days and possibly weeks," authorities said.
Ash rises as an explosive eruption begins at La Soufrière volcano in St. Vincent on Friday.
The areas closest to the volcano will be affected by pyroclastic flows and surges, authorities said. Teams are collecting data to understand the pattern of eruption.
"La Soufrière Volcano erupted the second Friday in April (Friday April 13) in 1979," NEMO said. "Four days shy of its anniversary it has again erupted on the second Friday in April (9) in 2021."
La Soufrière is located on the largest island of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines chain.
Prime Minister Gonsalves on Thursday declared a disaster alert prompted by a change in the volcano's eruptive activity. The island was placed on red alert, meaning an eruption was "imminent now," NEMO said.
"Please leave the red zone immediately. La Soufrière has erupted. Ash fall recorded as far as Argyle International Airport," it said.
On Friday, Dora James, director general of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Red Cross, told CNN the eruption sounded like a "large jet engine," and that there was a "consistent flow of smoke" from the ash plume.
Boats and some vehicles picked up last-minute evacuees from the area shortly after the explosion, she said. James, too, evacuated from the area but is heading back to see if there is damage.
She said that phone lines are currently jammed in the area because so many people are calling to try to get news and check on anyone that may have stayed behind.
James lived through the April 1979 eruptions and remembers them well. She said that the 1979 eruptions had more fires and mushrooming of ash.
Kenton Chance, a freelance journalist, told CNN that he was about five miles away from the volcano in the town of Rosehall on St. Vincent.
"Normally, you would have a very commanding view of the volcano," he said. "But because of the amount of ash in the air, you can't see it." Ash was still falling but in decreasing amounts, he said.
Chance heard rumbling from the mountain when he arrived, but it has since subsided.
Evacuation orders were put into place in about a dozen districts of St. Vincent, affecting roughly 6,000 to 7,000 people, a spokesperson for the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre, or UWI-SRC, told CNN.
While en route to Rosehall, Chance said he witnessed a number of people stopped on the side of the road, which he believes were evacuees.
He said so far he hasn't seen reports of property damage, injuries or deaths.
No comments:
Post a Comment