SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – Authorities on the eastern Caribbean island of Saint Vincent said Thursday they believe an active volcano is in danger of erupting and have ordered mandatory evacuations.
The island’s emergency management office changed the alert level to red and said a Royal Caribbean cruise ship would arrive after nightfall to evacuate those living near La Soufriere volcano. Others will be taken to shelters elsewhere in St. Vincent who is out of danger.
About 16,000 people live in the red zone and will have to be evacuated, Erouscilla Joseph, director of the Seismic Research Center at the University of the West Indies, told the Associated Press.
Evacuation efforts could be hampered by the pandemic.
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves told a news conference that people must be vaccinated if they board a cruise ship or are given temporary refuge on other nearby islands.
Gonsalves said he is talking to other Caribbean governments to accept people’s ID cards if they do not have a passport.
“This is an emergency and everyone understands that,” he said.
Gonsalves added that he strongly recommends those who choose to go to a shelter in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, an island chain of over 100,000 people, to be vaccinated.
Joseph said emergency management teams went out to communities in the red zone and provided transportation to safer locations, including pre-arranged shelters.
“I know who doesn’t have the means of transportation, because all of this has already been analyzed,” she said, adding that those boarding the cruise ship will not be taken elsewhere, but will remain there for an unspecified period of time. .
Government officials wrote on Twitter that the dome of the volcano located in the northern region of the island could be seen shining at nightfall. The alert issued on Wednesday evening follows days of seismic activity around the town of La Soufrière.
Scientists alerted the government to a possible eruption after observing a specific type of seismic activity at 3 a.m. Thursday, which indicated that “magma was moving close to the surface,” Joseph said.
“Things are escalating quite quickly,” she said of the volcanic activity, adding that it is impossible to provide an accurate forecast of what could happen in the next few hours or days.
A team from the seismic center reached St. Vincent in late December after the volcano erupted. They analyzed the formation of a new volcanic dome, changes in the crater lake, seismic activity and gas emissions, among others.
The volcano last erupted in 1979, and a previous eruption in 1902 killed about 1,600 people.