11 April 2021

Volcano Erupts on the Island of Saint Vincent

The Caribbean islands are mostly volcanic in nature. Volcano Erupts in Southern Caribbean, Sparking Evacuation ‘Frenzy’

Click the map at the right for a larger view. It shows the location of St. Vincent, for the geographically challenged, in relation to the rest of Caribbean, from Florida and Cuba to Trinidad and Venezuela and South America.

Dormant since 1979, the volcano started showing signs of activity in December, spewing steam and smoke and rumbling away. That picked up this week, prompting Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves to order an evacuation of the surrounding area late on Thursday.

Both Royal Caribbean and Carnival Corporation have sent ships in to aid in the evacuation, but COVID-19 will make that a problem as well. Vincentians, and other islanders, have been afraid of the vaccine and declining to take it. Neighboring islands don't want to accept people who are unvaccinated.

Not mentioned in the article linked above, but in the video below is a hazzard I hadn't considered. The island, at least in parts seems to be coated in several inches of volcanic ash. When the rains come - it is not quite the beginning of the rainy season - that ash will harden into a concrete-like texture. Making recovery difficult.

This video is "Thousands evacuate as volcano erupts on island of Saint Vincent" from ABC News' via YouTube.

The map above is by Kmusser at WikiMedia Commons, with a notation by me to highlight St. Vincent. For more information see this link.

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