The Big Wobble 4/9/2021
http://www.thebigwobble.org/2021/04/5-cruise-ships-head-to-st-vincent-for.html5 Cruise ships head to St. Vincent for evacuations as volcanic eruption seems imminent: Roughly 16,000 people live in the red zone and will need to be evacuated: Caveat! People have to be vaccinated if they go aboard a cruise ship or granted temporary refuge on other islands
Authorities in the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent have ordered mandatory evacuations on Thursday, saying they believe an active volcano is in danger of exploding. The island's emergency management office switched the alert level to red and said the first cruise line will in the next few hours evacuate those who live near La Soufrière volcano. It was not immediately clear how many people would be evacuated, where the ship would take them or if they would remain temporarily aboard. Roughly 16,000 people live in the red zone and will need to be evacuated, Erouscilla Joseph, director of the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Center, told The Associated Press.
Evacuation efforts could be hampered by the pandemic. Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves told a news conference that people have to be vaccinated if they go aboard a cruise ship or are granted temporary refuge in other nearby islands. He said two Royal Caribbean cruise ships are expected to arrive by Friday and a third one in the coming days, as well as two Carnival cruise ships by Friday. Islands that have said they would accept evacuees include St. Lucia, Grenada, Barbados and Antigua."Not everything is going to go perfect, but if we all co-operate ... we will come through this stronger than ever," Gonsalves said. He said he was talking to other Caribbean governments to accept people's ID cards if they don't have a passport.
"This is an emergency situation, and everybody understands that," he said. Gonsalves added that he highly recommends those who opt to go to a shelter in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, an island chain of more than 100,000 people, be vaccinated. Joseph said emergency management teams have been going out to communities in the red zone and providing transportation to safer locations, including prearranged shelters." They know who doesn't have transportation because all of this has been canvassed before," she said, adding that those who board the cruise ship would not be taken elsewhere but would remain there for an unspecified period of time. Officials said the dome of the volcano located on the island's northern region could be seen glowing by nightfall.