La Soufriere could rage for as long as a year – professor

Stories by Randy Bennett

As the country partially re-opens tomorrow and an islandwide clean-up of the ash from the La Soufriere volcano continues, Barbadians are being warned to brace for possibly more ashfall in the coming days and weeks.

The caution has come from Director of the University of the West Indies’ Seismic Research Centre, Professor Richard Robertson, who believes the series of eruptions from the volcano in St Vincent and the Grenadines is the worst in over a century.

The news came as Minister of Home Affairs, Information and Public Affairs, Wilfred Abrahams Monday night announced that while the national clean-up would continue tomorrow, shops, supermarkets, bakeries, gas stations, pharmacies and hardware stores would be allowed to reopen.

However, polyclinics, the airport and the Bridgetown Port will remain closed and there will continue to be a reduction of transport services.

He said once the situation improves, government departments that serve the public would re-open on Wednesday, while all other government departments would open on Thursday.

However, he said these plans were subject to change depending on the levels of ash.

Abrahams said Government was unable to complete the clean-up of roads and buildings in one day.

He pointed out that particular preference was being given to the major arteries and secondary roads.

“Tomorrow is going to be another clean-up day for Barbados. We could not complete all of it today because a lot of the efforts had to be aborted and quite frankly this is not a one-day thing.

“We are going to have to clean a lot of the government facilities to try to get as much business open back as possible.

“We don’t want to put people into situations where it is hazardous to their health so we have to clean to a certain standard before we can invite people back into the building and this is once again conditional on exactly where it is that you work and whether it is air-conditioned or not,” Abrahams said.

He pleaded with persons to stay at home wherever possible as the additional traffic was impacting the effectiveness of the clean-up.

Speaking during the emergency update, Professor Robertson predicted that while Barbadians may experience reduced ashfall in the coming days, as long as the volcano remains active there was a realistic possibility the island would continue to be affected.

He said it was still unclear how long the eruptions would continue.

Professor Robertson said although episodic explosions were emanating from the volcano, the plumes of ash were not traveling as high as on previous occasions.

However, he said the volcanic activity at present was “bigger” than the 1979 eruption. In fact, he said it was more on scale with the eruption which occurred in 1902.

“This period could vary from a few weeks to a few months to as long as up to a year given past experience.

“So in terms of what you can expect in the coming weeks, it’s possible in this week given that it seems to be trending towards small and shorter, less vigorous plumes, that you may not have periods of so much ash, but that is not to say that in the coming weeks you will not again have periods where you have ashfall,” Professor Robertson said.

“I will leave you with a thought which I know you would not like to hear but it’s a reality.

“As long as La Soufriere is erupting Barbadians have to expect that at some point in time, at some time during the eruptive periods that you will have ash.”

He said it was important for systems to be put in place to deal with the ash whenever it comes.

(randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)