Volcanic Eruption on St. Vincent

St. Vincent and the Grenadines is a small Caribbean island country with about 100,000 residents. Over the last few days, the local volcano called La Soufriere has been erupting. Today (Sunday 4-11-21) the eruptions increased. Electricity is out on most of the island and everything is covered by volcanic ash. Reports say that ash from St. Vincent is also falling in Barbados, another small island country off to the east.

Villages closest to the volcano have been evacuated but the island is so small there isn't really anywhere to go. Two large cruise ships are on their way to pick up evacuees, but the island Prime Minister says only people with covid innoculations will be allowed to board. (I don't know if that's the decision of his government or the cruise lines.)

The island's emergency agency called 'NEMO' (national emergency management organization) is here:

https://twitter.com/NEMOSVG

They say,

"Massive power outage following another explosive event at La Soufriere Volcano. Lightning, thunder and rumblings. Majority of the country out of power and covered in ash",

and

"Vincentians are waking up to extremely heavy ash fall and strong sulphur smells which have now advanced to the capital"

and

"Pyroclastic flows at La Soufriere possible destruction and devastation of communities close to volcano. Current activity pattern similar to that of 1902 eruption. According to Professor Richie Richardson likely to cause more damage and destruction."

Lots of good information on the University of the West Indies Seismic twitter page

https://twitter.com/uwiseismic

http://uwiseismic.com/

AP photo

Reuters photo

UWI photo (Lightning is common in volcanic ash clouds, which easily become electrically charged.)

UWI photo

This is the UWI Volcanic Observatory on the island (UWI photo)

The latest update that I've seen from yesterday.

http://nemo.gov.vc/nemo/index.php/49-new...1-11-00-am

The eruption is continuing but seems to be declining in intensity. Local authorities say 8k-9k people are displaced from the evacuation area (the whole northern end of the island. (The whole country isn't much over 100k population.) Luckily the larger towns including the little capital are in the south end. Explosive eruptions with lots of ash and pyroclastic flows have died down and the island is starting to clean up.

And here's today's update from University of the West Indies Seismic

https://twitter.com/uwiseismic/status/13...0985982977

(Apr 18, 2021 06:54 PM)Yazata Wrote: Luckily the larger towns including the little capital are in the south end. Explosive eruptions with lots of ash and pyroclastic flows have died down and the island is starting to clean up.

Yeah, at least the location of La Soufrière on the potato-shaped land mass allows enough meager separation to make a lower hazard Zone-4 even possible on the other end.

I didn't realize the island is only 133 sq miles in area (circa 11.5 miles wide and 11.5 miles long if it was quadrate). The median land area of counties in the US is 622 square miles. The base itself of La Soufrière covers or eats up several miles, given that the mere summit crater alone is a mile wide. 

In comparison to St. Vincent, "The Big Island" of Hawaii is a giant at 4,028 sq mi, but afflicted with more volcanoes.