A Modern Pompei ~ Plymouth, Montserrat

[GordMay]

Soufriere - Montserrat

A growing lava dome looms above the crater of the Soufriere Hills volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat, on April 3, 2007.
The volcano became active in the late 1990s. Since it began to erupt in 1995, Soufriere has destroyed almost the entire southern half of Montserrat, laying waste to hospitals, businesses, government buildings and the airport.

Montserrat Stories & Pics:

The Volcanic Drama at Montserrat

Pics: Plymouth

[sv_makai]

Picture of the flow from an overlook. It shows the top of the Volcano all of the way to the sea. We took this pick when visiting there in 2006. The sight made for a pause and a large amount of reflection. The devastation is amazing.

http://www.sv-makai.com/images/2006_image/flow.jpg

[little boat]

i actually sailed by monserrat the day the volcano blew. i left nevis at 3 am under a very strange, blood red moon with all the dogs ashore barking like mad. i even mentionned mt st helen's to my partner at the time, as the dogs barked in the same crazy manner that night and i guess i speak dog. the sun had risen when we reached monserrat. the smoke was very thick, couldn't see the bow of the boat, and i went below which was also full of smoke with my two little dogs, refusing my trick at the helm for the first (and only) time in my personal history because my partner refused to tack to the east coast, saying that it was only 14nm or somesuch and we had the tack. big cargo ships were exiting the piers and i heard them on the radio but couldn't see or hear anything; we were about 2nm offshore. one said he was headed for antigua and i was relieved he was going the other way. it was like sailing through a swirling ashtray and i was thinking the doggies were like canaries in a coal mine. when we cleared the southern tip of the island, we could see again; monserrat was inside of a grey smoke bomb, chunks of rock plopping into the sea.
plymouth was such a great town.