KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent (AP) – Leaders of St. Vincent, destroyed by volcanoes, said on Tuesday the water was leaking as heavy ash contaminated the reserves and estimated that the eastern Caribbean island would need hundreds of millions of dollars to recover from the La Soufrière eruption.
Between 16,000 and 20,000 people have been evacuated from the northern region of the island, where the exploding volcano is located, with more than 3,000 of them remaining in more than 80 government shelters.
Dozens of people lined up on Tuesday for water or to recover money sent by friends and family abroad. Among those sitting in a crowd was retired police officer Paul Smart.
“The volcano caught us with our pants down and it’s very devastating,” he said. “Without water, a lot of dust in our house. We thank God that we are alive, but we need more help right now. ”
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves told a news conference on local NBC Radio that St. Vincent will need hundreds of millions of dollars to recover from the eruption, but he did not give any details.
He added that no casualties had been reported from the first large volcano eruption early Friday. “We have to try to keep that record,” he said. Gonsalves said some people refused to leave the communities closest to the volcano and urged them to evacuate.
Declining ash and pyroclastic flows destroyed crops and contaminated water reservoirs. Garth Saunders, the island’s minister of water and sanitation, said some communities had not yet received water.
“The (east) wind coast is our biggest challenge today,” he said during a news conference about efforts to deploy water trucks. “What we offer is a finite amount. We’ll run out at some point. ”
The prime minister said people in some shelters needed food and water and thanked neighboring nations for transporting items, including cots, respirators and water bottles and tanks. In addition, the World Bank paid the government of St. Vincent $ 20 million as part of an interest-free disaster financing program.
Adam Billing, a retired police officer who lived and cared for his crops on land near the volcano, said he has more than 3 acres of plantain, tannins, yams and a variety of fruits and estimates that he lost crops. worth over $ 9,000.
“Everything that (means) means of livelihood has disappeared. Everything, “said Billing, who was evacuated. “We have to look at the next few months, because the government will not be a quick solution.”
The volcano, which has seen a low eruption since December, experienced its first major explosion on Friday morning, and volcanologists say the activity could continue for weeks.
Another explosion was reported on Tuesday morning, sending another mass of ash into the air. It came on the anniversary of the 1979 eruption, the last volcanic eruption until Friday morning. An earlier eruption in 1902 killed about 1,600 people.
“It’s still a pretty dangerous volcano,” said Richard Robertson of the University of the West Indies’s Seismic Research Center. “May cause serious damage.”
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Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Associated Press videographer Orvil Samuel contributed to the report.