(CMR) The National Emergency Management Organisation of St Vincent and the Grenadines reported on its Facebook Page that the La Soufriere Volcano erupted explosively again Thursday morning.
The UWI Seismic Research Centre said in a post on Twitter the eruption “has now risen to above 8 km into the atmosphere. Most of the material seems to be going out towards the sea.”
The explosive eruptions began on April 9, forcing a mass evacuation of sections of St Vincent.
According to Barbados Today, Professor Richard Robertson, head of the UWI Seismic Research Centre’s Belmont observatory in St. Vincent, said, “the volcano seems to be getting rid of all the gas that was built up inside it, and it may actually be in the process of reforming a dome after having destroyed the old one.”
“It may go back dormant, but there is the possibility that it may erupt again in a few weeks or months,” he said.
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said, “an extraordinary, existential challenge” was facing the country. He called on other countries to help St Vincent in efforts of recovery.
Gonsalves said the UN was seeking nearly $29.2 million in assistance to fund six months of recovery work.
The island's recovery will cost “many millions of dollars, and we're not talking about just tens of millions. It's going to be in excess of that,” Gonsalves said.
Thousands of people have been living in government shelters, some of which have been struggling to provide basic supplies, and water systems are shut down in many parts of the island.
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