KINGSTOWN – Leaders of volcano-wracked St. Vincent said Tuesday that water is running short as heavy ash contaminates supplies and they estimated that the eastern Caribbean island will need hundreds of millions of dollars to recover from the eruption of La Soufriere.
Between 16,000 to 20,000 people have been evacuated from the island’s northern region, where the exploding volcano is located, with more than 3,000 of them staying at more than 80 government shelters. “We have to get stuff rolling into people,” Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said in a press conference on local station NBC Radio.
But no casualties have been reported since the first big blast from the volcano early Friday. “We have to try and keep that record,” he said.