http://www.loopnewscaribbean.com
Ayesha Tuitt-Walters
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When the first signs that the La Soufriere Volcano in St Vincent was awakening became evident late last year, the eruptions of 1902 and 1979 dominated conversations by residents both young and old.
However, for Montserratians, the April 9 eruption of La Soufriere volcano triggered memories of what they endured in the aftermath of the Soufriere Hills volcano which spanned from 1995 to 1997.
Ayesha Walters was a teenager at the time.
She told Loop Caribbean: “The days leading up to the eruption were pretty normal. I was thirteen years old. I was living with my grandmother who I had lived with since I was six weeks old. My younger brother was living with us too at the time, so it was me, my younger brother, my grandmother and two of my uncles, we were all living in the same house and we lived in Plymouth.
“The days leading up as I said were pretty normal but what stood out to me was the pungent smell of sulphur. We would smell it all the time. We often hiked to Soufriere Hills and would usually smell the sulphur when we went up there, but in the days and weeks leading up to the eruption, we were getting the sulphur scent in town quite frequently. I also remember we would get up in the morning and there would be a thin film of dust over everything, we just couldn't figure it out.”
Ayesha said she was at a cake decorating event when she found out the volcano was active again.
“…somebody rushed in and said, "The volcano is erupting, the volcano is erupting." At that point I wasn't scared, because I was 13, I had not a care in the world...”
Her family lived right at the foot of the mountain so in the interest of safety, their nights were spent with friends who lived in Salem, a town that’s further north of the island, and in the safe zone.
“We would go over there at night to sleep and then I would go to school in Delvins which is like the middle ground between safe and unsafe. So, that's what we were doing in the early days. We would go over to sleep in the night, then come back.”
Ayesha said after a while they got complacent as nothing was really happening. They returned home and it wasn’t long before they were living normally and going about their daily routines, despite the imminent threat posed by the volcano.
She said all was well until one day the island was blanketed by a huge ash plume.
“I will never forget it, I can’t remember what day it was but I remember I was in town close to the bank and the pyroclastic...the ash just came rushing down you couldn’t get away. I went into the bank to get away from it but my grandmother was out in the field so she got caught in it.
"She said she couldn’t even see her hand if she held it right in front of her face because of how dark the place got with this ash cloud that came down. We started wearing masks for protection because people started to get sick," Ayesha recalled.
It was at this juncture, Ayesha said, that residents of Long Ground, Bethel and Tuitt’s, communities in the direct path of the volcanos pyroclastic flows, moved to the northern section of the island, seeking safety.
“I remember this clearly. They were living in tents, we had not moved yet over to that side of the island. But many people were living in tents…”
As the situation deteriorated, Ayesha said her grandmother thought it best to send her and her younger brother to visit their mother who lived in Antigua at the time.
“We were supposed to leave the Saturday, and for some reason, I cannot remember, we missed our flight, and we didn’t get to go. And that Saturday night, I think that was the scariest thing that I had ever experienced during the volcano so far because it was a night of nonstop earthquakes. The house was shaking, we couldn’t sleep, you could hear the glass, the cutlery, the glass everything in the cupbo
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Dan Chapplin [RN Official Page] / Blog
St Vincent La Soufrière erupts! Montserrat woman recalls similar experience
http://www.loopnewscaribbean.com Ayesha Tuitt-Walters
Share to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to LinkedInShare to WhatsAppShare to MessengerShare to EmailShare to TelegramShare to More When the first signs that the La Soufriere Volcano in St Vincent was awakening became evident late last year, the eruptions of 1902 and 1979 dominated conversations by residents both young and old.
However, for Montserratians, the April 9 eruption of La Soufriere volcano triggered memories of what they endured in the aftermath of the Soufriere Hills volcano which spanned from 1995 to 1997.
Ayesha Walters was a teenager at the time.
She told Loop Caribbean: “The days leading up to the eruption were pretty normal. I was thirteen years old. I was living with my grandmother who I had lived with since I was six weeks old. My younger brother was living with us too at the time, so it was me, my younger brother, my grandmother and two of my uncles, we were all living in the same house and we lived in Plymouth.
“The days leading up as I said were pretty normal but what stood out to me was the pungent smell of sulphur. We would smell it all the time. We often hiked to Soufriere Hills and would usually smell the sulphur when we went up there, but in the days and weeks leading up to the eruption, we were getting the sulphur scent in town quite frequently. I also remember we would get up in the morning and there would be a thin film of dust over everything, we just couldn't figure it out.”
Ayesha said she was at a cake decorating event when she found out the volcano was active again.
“…somebody rushed in and said, "The volcano is erupting, the volcano is erupting." At that point I wasn't scared, because I was 13, I had not a care in the world...”
Her family lived right at the foot of the mountain so in the interest of safety, their nights were spent with friends who lived in Salem, a town that’s further north of the island, and in the safe zone.
“We would go over there at night to sleep and then I would go to school in Delvins which is like the middle ground between safe and unsafe. So, that's what we were doing in the early days. We would go over to sleep in the night, then come back.”
Ayesha said after a while they got complacent as nothing was really happening. They returned home and it wasn’t long before they were living normally and going about their daily routines, despite the imminent threat posed by the volcano.
She said all was well until one day the island was blanketed by a huge ash plume.
“I will never forget it, I can’t remember what day it was but I remember I was in town close to the bank and the pyroclastic...the ash just came rushing down you couldn’t get away. I went into the bank to get away from it but my grandmother was out in the field so she got caught in it.
"She said she couldn’t even see her hand if she held it right in front of her face because of how dark the place got with this ash cloud that came down. We started wearing masks for protection because people started to get sick," Ayesha recalled.
It was at this juncture, Ayesha said, that residents of Long Ground, Bethel and Tuitt’s, communities in the direct path of the volcanos pyroclastic flows, moved to the northern section of the island, seeking safety.
“I remember this clearly. They were living in tents, we had not moved yet over to that side of the island. But many people were living in tents…”
As the situation deteriorated, Ayesha said her grandmother thought it best to send her and her younger brother to visit their mother who lived in Antigua at the time.
“We were supposed to leave the Saturday, and for some reason, I cannot remember, we missed our flight, and we didn’t get to go. And that Saturday night, I think that was the scariest thing that I had ever experienced during the volcano so far because it was a night of nonstop earthquakes. The house was shaking, we couldn’t sleep, you could hear the glass, the cutlery, the glass everything in the cupbo
Reply
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