A Barbados Coast Guard ship and 40 sailors were steaming towards Kingstown overnight to deliver humanitarian aid after three explosive eruptions of the La Soufriere volcano filled the skies in and around St. Vincent with stony ash throughout Friday.
Here at home, authorities are closely monitoring local air quality and have pledged to provide early warning if atmospheric conditions worsen from the fallout.
Late into the night on Friday, the crew of HMBS Rudyard Lewis was busy loading about seven tonnes of supplies on to the vessel.
During the crew’s final preparations, Attorney General Dale Marshall and Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Abrahams visited the base at HMBS Pelican to wish the sailors safe passage.
Marshall told the contingent that though the current situation in St. Vincent is a worrying one, it was at times like these Barbados needs to assist its fellow Caribbean nations.
The AG said: “I have no doubt, that everyone in St. Vincent and the Grenadines are absolutely petrified. It’s at times like this that we need to lend a strong arm of support to our brothers and sisters in the region when they need it.
“As I speak to you, the Prime Minister [Mia Mottley] is engaging in discussion with Prime Minister [Ralph Gonsalves], to see what assistance St. Vincent and the Grenadines will require of us, and Barbados stands ready to go very much over, and above that what which we are already doing.”
A tense calm remains in the CARICOM neighbour located 159 kilometres (99 miles) to the west which recorded three explosive eruptions, the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre (UWI-SRC) reported.
The latest of the three events that occurred within a ten-hour period was recorded around 6:35 p.m. It followed one at 2:45 p.m., which came after the first at 8:41 a.m., the SRC said.
All three explosive eruptions sent thick ash plumes thousands of feet into the sky and resulted in ash falls in parts of the country as well as neighbouring islands.
Director of the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) Anthony Headley pointed out that since Tuesday, the island has seen a 66 per cent increase in dust levels associated with the Sahara dust haze.
There is currently only one air quality monitoring station in Barbados, located at the Caribbean Institute for Metrology and Hydrology but Government plans a second station to more closely watch particle levels from the volcanic ash, he said.
Headley told reporters: “We are going to be putting another station into operation and this would assist us in terms of understanding the levels of dust if there is dust fall from this particular eruption.
“We will also be putting in place as a result of the eruption, a system to notify persons if the levels of dust increase beyond the WHO [World Health Organisation] standards for dust in our environment.”
Amid the escalating activity, evacuations continued Friday from the red zone, from Chateubelair in the northwest to Fancy on the northern tip to the second largest town, Georgetown, on the northwest coast – population 1,680.
A total of 20,000 people are to be evacuated from the stricken region.
Earlier Friday at an update on the implications of the eruption’s fallout on Barbados, the Home Affairs Minister signalled that preparations are already underway to provide housing for any Vincentian evacuees.
Wilfred Abrahams said that while the Mia Mottley administration stands ready to assist, a formal request has not yet been made and therefore it was still early days to give details about possible accommodation.
But he gave an assurance that comprehensive measures were being “worked on”.
Abrahams said: “There will be a formal request if necessary from St Vincent and then the appropriate orders will be made from our side, at which the information will become available. It is a little bit premature to say what arrangements have been made because we are not yet at that stage.
“Rest assured that the plans are being put in place to handle any eventuality that may occur and for us to be able to offer St Vincent and its people all the support that we can and all the support that they need.”
Several cruise ships are also expected to provide assistance in evacuating residents out of Kingstown.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Kenneth George told journalists that COVID-19 testing would be part of the process of accommodating Vincentians here.
He declared: “If there is any transfer of persons, the protocols for COVID will be in place and the public will be protected.
“We will at no time take any shortcuts and PCR testing or whatever form of testing will be fully operationalised and therefore, the public of Barbados will be informed.”
In St Vincent, Deputy Director of the Agency for Public Information (API) Nadia Slater, advised Vincentians that in order to board the cruise ships for a neighbouring island like Barbados, they must be vaccinated with at least dose of the vaccine.
On Thursday evening, Prime Minister Mottley pledged whatever assistance is needed.
Speaking with journalists just after noon on Friday, Abrahams said that up to that point some 2,000 people were spread over 20 shelters in St Vincent and the Grenadines, and there were some 20,000 people still in the orange and red zones to be evacuated.
Evacuees have been heading to neighbouring Grenadine islands. Fewer than 10 islands of the 32-island archipelago are inhabited including, Bequia, Mustique, Canouan, Union Island, Mayreau, Petit St Vincent and Palm Island.
Home Affairs Minister Abrahams said that the initial plan in St Vincent was for people there to be evacuated to shelters and onto cruise lines first before seeking lodging in other territories.
But insisting that Barbados would not wait for a formal request for accommodation to start putting measures in place, Abrahams added that “all of the necessary protocols are being worked on now so that we are not caught by surprise”.
“We are there to support our brothers and sisters in St Vincent and the Grenadines in any way that we need to as a responsible and caring CARICOM and Caribbean territory,” said Abrahams.
“The full support services are going to be deployed as necessary to St Vincent. The [Barbados] Coast Guard will be heading down to take supplies and to handle the transfer of equipment and maybe personnel. Some of the security services are on standby just as a precaution.”
(marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb), (SB)
