The Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, has asked the people of the area near the La Soufriere volcano (which erupted on Friday) for patience and celebrated the fact that so far no deaths or injuries have been reported.
Several neighboring nations such as Saint Lucia, Dominica and Barbados have already begun to deliver necessary materials for many of the around 15,000 people residing in the area who are being evacuated, such as tents, mattresses and other materials that will be distributed throughout the Saturday.
Several cruise ships await the reception of evacuees to be transferred to other nearby countries and almost 2,000 people are staying in more than 60 shelters enabled by local authorities.
Speaking to the local station NBC Radio, Gonsalves has asked for “calm” and “patience” to those affected, in addition to insisting on the need to protect themselves and not forgetting that the island -with some 110,000 inhabitants-, like the rest of the world, is immersed in the COVID-19 pandemic.
In fact, an attempt has been made to test all those who have accessed the shelters.
In turn, he pointed out that agriculture in the area, one of its main activities, will be “seriously affected” by what happened and warned that, despite the damage, also to homes, “if we have strength and life, we will rebuild everything. and we will come out stronger. ”
The La Soufriere volcano in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has erupted and has begun to release plumes of smoke, ash and steam, according to the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO).
FIRST ERUPTION SINCE 1979
The La Soufriere volcano erupted this Friday for the first time since 1979 and throughout the day it registered up to three volcanic explosions, with columns of ash and smoke of up to six kilometers.
Due to the direction of the wind since Friday, a large part of the ash in the air is heading towards the Atlantic Ocean, to the northeast.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has not seen prominent volcanic activity since 1979.
The volcano began to reactivate last December.
La Soufriere had erupted for the last time on the second Friday in April, on the 13th of the year 1979, as well as on April 9, the second Friday in April 2021.
An explosive eruption at La Soufriere killed more than 1,000 people in 1902.