Living with Volcanoes 

Every community living close to an active volcano needs to have disaster response plans in place. Measures taken include reinforcing structures, for example - strengthening roofs to support the weight of tephra deposits or building protective works, such as walls, to deflect lava flows away from developed areas.

Of course, such efforts can be of limited use in a large-scale eruption. When it comes to volcanoes, planning is the key to saving lives. Well before the warning signs occur, people must be educated about volcanic hazards and evacuation plans must be in place. When Colombia’s Nevado del Ruiz erupted in 1985, the town of Armero did not have clear emergency procedures in place and when the deadly mudflow came down the slope, 90% of the population was killed.

As the Soufriere volcano in Montserrat (a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean) showed, explosive eruptions can have devastating consequences. The former capital, Plymouth, which lies adjacent to the volcano, now stands deserted in the island’s ‘exclusion zone’. While two-thirds of the 11,500 population left for the UK or a neighbouring Caribbean island, remaining inhabitants had to be relocated to the previously sparsely populated north of the island.

When Montserrat underwent the 1995 eruption, it lost its capital, virtually all its essential infrastructure (including airport), and its visitor numbers plummeted from 22,000 in 1993 to 6,000 in 1997. The crisis had a huge impact on the social structures of the island, with many inhabitants relocated to the other side of the world. With the elderly particularly hard-hit, a third of Montserratians are now struggling to get by.

After a disaster on the scale of Montserrat, rebuilding an economy and relocating inhabitants to zones of lesser risk is an inevitably slow and costly process. Since the beginning of the crisis (July 1995) to the end of the 2001/2 financial year, the UK government spent £160 million in assistance to Montserrat and provided £48 million in budgetary aid.