A Volcano Erupts
On April 9, a volcano called La Soufrière erupted on Saint Vincent. The island is in the Caribbean Sea. Thousands of people there were forced to leave their homes. The explosion was massive. It sent hot ash 32,000 feet into the sky. The volcano continued to erupt for days.
"It's destroying everything in its path," says Erouscilla Joseph. She's director of the Seismic Research Centre at the University of the West Indies. Joseph says there could be more explosions to come. It's hard to know whether they'd be bigger or smaller than what the island has seen so far, she says.
Government-run shelters and empty cruise ships have taken on people who left their homes. Other people have fled to nearby islands to get out of harm's way.
La Soufrière began showing signs of activity in December. Until then, it had been inactive for decades. It last erupted in 1979. Elford Lewis fled his home on April 11. He remembers the eruption of 1979. "This one is more serious," he says.
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