Not sure how close St Vincent is to St Maarten but saw this announcement. Hope these people get tested if they are brought to St Maarten.
"Evacuation order issued to all residents living in the RED ZONES on the North East and the North West of the SVG by Hon. Ralph E. Gonsalves. All residents are asked to act accordingly with immediate effect to ensure their safety and that of their families
The La Soufriere Volcano is showing signals of erupting and can erupt NOW, next few hours or days.
Persons on mainland St. Vincent will be evacuated via cruise ships to neighbouring islands.
The first Royal Caribbean cruise liner arrives tonight to assist in evacuation in St.Vincent"

St. Vincent and the Grenadines are due west of Barbados, north of Grenada and south of St. Lucia. It's over 500 kms. from St. Martin, so not that close.

It would be more likely that they would be evacuated to other islands in the Grenadines, or to one of the larger islands nearby, such as the three closest that I mentioned.

Thanks. Wasn't sure exactly where it was. Just to lazy to Google a map.

I can remember back in the 90's when a volcano with a similar name erupted and all but destroyed Montserrat. It was really bad and left damage that to this day has never been repaired. Montserrat would be much closer to St. Maarten geographically, but I can't recall if St. Maarten had any fall out from falling ash, etc. when that happened back then. I don't think so. I believe St. Lucia would be the most popular island near St. Vincent and the Grenadines, maybe 50 to 60 miles due north so that would seem like a good destination for evacuation plans. That's where I would go if I lived there. Or, maybe Barbados like Canuck mentioned above.

We were on island when montserrat blew. Had a lot of ash falling and workers all had masks on and PJIA was closed. No flights in or out.

The Volcano has had an explosive eruption.

Best wishes to all in the danger zone here.

Since this has nothing to do with SXM, moving it to People Talk.

Here's a more extensive report on the continuing evacuation efforts, following the eruption.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/explosive-eruption-rocks-volcano-on-caribbean-s-st-vincent-1.5380923

Interesting, that the people evacuated to cruise ships are supposed to just stay there for a while. I wonder who is paying??

The https://apnews.com/article/la-soufr...ribbean-1430a41cbaa02f20222b6b3e37dc2c05

Thankfully the ash is moving east and should not be an issue in SXM

Thanks for the links. This southeastern portion of the Leeward Islands has always been a 'ripe' some for volcanos, but interestingly enough they all use the word 'Soufriere' in their names. The volcano that all but destroyed Montserrat was called 'Soufriere Hills' and there's big one by that same name on Guadeloupe that's probably a ticking time bomb. I believe some volcanic blasts that occur at sea can trigger tidal waves, so let's hope that's not the case here and this thing will settle down soon.

I would hope it's a humanitarian donation by those cruise lines.

If they were just providing transportation for one day to another island, I might agree, but as I said, if they are talking about people living on the ship for a period of time, I can't imagine them doing it for free. If nothing else, the cost of FOOD..

Depends on what level of food they provide. Sometimes doing deeds isn't always about the money.

Agreed, but the cruise lines have made ZERO money for the past year....

Another article.
https://komonews.com/news/nation-wo...ic-explosions-as-help-arrives-04-10-2021