Royal Caribbean evacuates US, British and Canadian Nationals from St. Vincent as eruptions continue
The Associated Press reported that the La Soufriere volcano on the island of St. Vincent has been shooting out explosions of gas and ash for the past week, sending tens of thousands of residents fleeing.
Friday morning’s blast “wasn’t a big explosion compared to the ones that we last weekend, but it was big enough to punch a hole through the clouds,” said Richard Robertson, lead scientist at the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Center, in an interview with local NBC radio. “Probably got up to 8,000 meters (26,000 feet).”
The last time the volcano put off similar blasts was more than a century ago when some 1,700 people were killed. The current explosions have not yet caused any deaths, but the roofs of homes have collapsed from the weight of the fallen ash, and a lot of water supplies have been contaminated.
The outlet reported that "British, the U.S. and Canadian nationals were being evacuated aboard Royal Caribbean Cruises' Celebrity Reflection from the harbour in the Kingstown, capital of St. Vincent. Grenadines."
The U.S. Embassy in Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean, and the OECS sent out a "natural disaster alert" notifying Americans on St. Vincent that they had coordinated with Royal Caribbean Cruises "for a transit opportunity" to depart the island on Friday and drop everyone off in St. Martin the next day.
They included students from the Trinity School of Medicine and stranded tourists, including families with young children in arms.
It also noted in an official statement that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had recommended against travel on cruise ships because of the chance of getting COVID-19 and said people who had been in close contact with suspected COVID-19 cases were barred from the trip. All aboard were supposed to have a negative rapid antigen test taken within 24 hours of boarding.
Meanwhile, thousands of locals have stuck n emergency shelters with no idea when they might be able to return home.
A few people, however, never left, defying evacuation orders.
Raydon May, a bus conductor in his late 20s who stayed in Sandy Bay throughout the eruptions, said he had always planned to stay if the volcano erupted and was trying to protect properties in the community while making occasional trips outside the evacuation zone to pick up water and supplies.
He said so much ash had fallen that the roofs of houses were collapsing under the weight.
“One roof might get on like three truckloads of sand,” he said. “We are trying to help … but we can’t help everybody.”
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