Study Note - Global Inequalities and Natural Hazards – Soufrière Hills Volcano

Natural hazards affect vulnerable populations, and one example of how the effects of a natural disaster were exacerbated by a lack of development is the Soufrière Hills volcano on the island of Montserrat (not to be confused with La Soufrière on the island of Saint Vincent, or La Grande Soufrière on the island of Basse-Terre).

The island of Montserrat is a British overseas territory in the Leeward Islands, named by Christopher Columbus in 1493 after the mountain Montserrat near Barcelona, Spain. The island was first colonised in 1632 by Irish refugees from nearby Nevis, most of who had been brought against their will to work as servants. This Irish heritage, combined with the green, verdant land that was a product of the volcanic soil, gave the island the nickname ‘the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean’. The import of African slaves led to a plantation economy mostly producing sugar, rum and cotton. The only port of entry to the island was the Georgian-era capital of Plymouth, in the south of the island. A map of the island, with the exclusion zones currently in place, is shown below.

The Soufrière Hills volcano had experienced seismic activity during its colonial history, but an actual eruption hadn’t occurred since the 19th Century before the eruption of 1995. Soufrière Hills is a stratovolcano, and the eruption began on the 18th July, 1995 after pyroclastic flows and mudflows began occurring regularly. The capital, which was the largest town, was evacuated, along with most other settlements in the southern, most populous part of the island. A few weeks after the evacuation of Plymouth the town was overrun by a pyroclastic flow, leaving the city several metres deep in debris, and completely uninhabitable. The eastern edge of the island, inside the exclusion zone, was home to the only airport on the island, and the port in Plymouth was completely destroyed. The first phreatic explosion (where ash, rock and steam explode into the atmosphere) occurred in August, covering the southern half of the island in ash.

The two dominant contributors to the island’s economy, agriculture and tourism, were almost completely destroyed, and two thirds of the island’s population were evacuated, mostly to Britain. The United Kingdom provided £41 million in aid, emphasising how much help needed to be given. Foreign aid has gone a long way in developing a new capital called Little Bay in the north of the island, and in 2005 Princess Anne opened a new airport in the town of Gerald’s. Montserrat was heavily affected economically by the eruption of Soufrière Hills, which is still active, and this is illustrated by the sheer volume of aid that has been required to start rebuilding the island.