Pacific volcano erupts, leading to evacuation of hundreds

2009/11/26

PORT VILA: More than 300 villagers were evacuated in the Pacific nation of Vanuatu on Thursday after an erupting volcano started spewing smoke and ash onto their homes, the Red Cross said. Residents were loaded onto fishing boats and shipped to the far side of Gaua island after the volcano, which has been rumbling for the past two months, started erupting.

“They’re evacuating people to the other side of the island. The volcano was throwing ash in the place they live,” an official told AFP, adding police and Vanuatu’s National Disaster Management Office were overseeing the operation.

The Red Cross is providing water containers and purification tablets for the villagers, who have been hit by respiratory problems and diarrhoea caused by the volcano’s pungent sulphur fumes.

The evacuees will have to stay away from their villages until the volcano subsides, he said. The area has been put on the second highest alert level, reports said.

Gaua, about 3,000 metres high, has erupted 13 times since 1963, tourism officials say. Vanuatu is on the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity. - AFP