In A Volcano’s Path: Life Erupts In Montserrat

from Response: September 1997 Issue

by YVETTE MOORE

Click on any of the pictures for a larger image. All photographs taken by Paul Jeffrey.

Montserrat, a small British Caribbean isle in the Leeward chain, had just about recovered from the devastating Hurricane Hugo of 1989, when the Soufriere Hills volcano erupted after lying dormant for 300 years.

"We were actually in church in Long Ground when somebody called," recalled the Rev. Joan Meade, a pastor in the Leeward Islands District of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas. Authorities declared Long Ground off-limits.

That July l8, 1995, announcement changed the meaning of normal living on Montserrat. It’s also changed the way the church does ministry.

The active volcano has displaced many people and continues to force people from their homes. In August 1995, senior citizens living in the southern part of the island were relocated from their homes in a precautionary measure. Their younger neighbors had to follow them later that month. In January 1996, most of those people returned to their homes only to be forced to leave again that April when the Montserrat Volcano Observatory indicated more activity.

"Immediately people had to move," Ms. Meade said. "There have been people living away from home since that day. At one time, we had 17 displaced persons -- church family and my in-laws -- living with us in the study, family room, back porch."

Each day since the first blast, Montserratians have received a government update on the volcano’s activity and a color-coded alert status notice. Notices range from those that report no new surface volcanic activity to conditions that require school closings and evacuations.

Evacuation announcements have become increasingly sudden, Ms. Meade said. June 25, twenty people -- only 10 bodies were recovered -- became the first casualties from the volcano when pyroclastics buried the villages of Trants and Farms. Five other villages hit in that outpouring had been declared unsafe earlier, but people had returned to tend farms and animals. As this issue of Response went to press, there were continuing reports of pyroclastics, missing people and deaths.

Ten of the first 20 dead were affiliated with Bethel Methodist Church, a congregation in Ms. Meade’s charge. She presided over a memorial service for them two weeks after the fatal eruption. A national day of mourning was observed two days after that service.

"There’s a lot of distress here now," Ms. Meade said. "Whole communities have lost everything. It’s hard for family members to accept some of the deaths because the bodies have not been found, but communities were literally buried."

Ms. Meade believes that distress has caused some senior citizens to give up their will to live.

"Every so often the stress level rises and some of the ailing elderly decide not to hang around here anymore," she said. "Sometimes it happens when people start making plans to take them off the island. They prefer to die at home."

Before the deaths in Trants and Farms, many Montserratians wanted to return to their homes as soon as it was safe. Now, many are leaving the island for Antigua and England, Ms. Meade said. British Dependent Territory citizens do not usually have the same status as British citizens. However, British immigration requirements have been removed for this voluntary evacuation, enabling Montserratians to move to England, find jobs and work -- provided they have someone there with whom they can live. They are entitled to social services and unemployment benefits.

Ms. Meade is assisting elderly people in leaving the island, coordinating their travel arrangements with relatives outside Montserrat, filing for their passports and facilitating details for their relocation.

"Some people still cannot travel because they cannot afford it," she said. "I have to play the advocate and see what help is available for them."

Since the volcano’s ash interferes with aircraft-navigation and broadcasting equipment, the airport has been closed, leaving the ferry as the only way out, Ms. Meade said.

No more business as usual

The active volcano is also affecting Montserrat’s economy. Many local businesses have closed and major tourist sightseeing attractions -- including Soufriere Hills -- are no longer accessible. Volcanic ash has covered important tourist attractions like hiking trails and waterfalls.

"April 1, 1997, we had large pyroclastics flow that covered a waterfall," Ms. Meade said. "When that happens, everything in its path is scarred for good."

The movement of people and the interruption of business makes ministry more difficult -- and more needed. The circuit purchased equipment and materials to keep children occupied during the crisis, and the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries’ Volunteers in Mission helped the church provide an extended vacation Bible school program for grade-school children. The circuit’s task force for adolescent mothers continues working with the young women, and Volunteers in Mission brought layette items for the babies. The church is in the process of organizing an income-generating crafts project to help families replace wages lost to the volcanic activity.

"The challenge is to really live out the hope I preach as pastor," Ms. Meade said. "The focus is on helping people to recognize, to claim, to affirm the presence of God in our situation -- God, our very present help in trouble. Psalm 46 seems to be written for our situation. We’ll be a stronger people."

That resolve is already showing in the island’s high-school students, said Ms. Meade, a former high-school teacher. Despite disruptions in classes and shifts in school hours because of the volcanic activity, the island’s youth performed better on regional standardized tests in 1996 than before the volcano began erupting. Students have been encouraged to keep journals during their relocations, Ms. Meade said.

Of the four churches in her charge, two have been used as shelters. The circuit’s Christian-education building was used as a geriatrics shelter by the Red Cross. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) has sent two shipments of food -- beans, rice, vegetables, cereals and cooking oil -- to the Methodist Church of Montserrat for distribution to displaced families.

UMCOR also gave the circuit $10,000 to assist the island’s displaced farming community, which had resettled on land in Trants provided by the government.

"We fenced the plots, and paid for land preparation, planting material and transportation for the farmers," Ms. Meade said. "A rototiller was purchased from this grant. The farmers reaped good harvests and were getting back on their feet. However, the June 25 flows came close to these plots, which had been considered safe, so now we are back to square one."

In areas completely destroyed by the volcano, farmers will have to wait months, maybe longer, for the soil to cool, stabilize and achieve the right mix of nutrients to support crop growth, explained Deborah Brosnan, PhD, a biologist and founder of Sustainable Ecosystems Institute. Her Portland, Oregon-based non-profit environmental concern is monitoring the effects of Montserrat’s active volcano.

"In the areas that have been `dusted’ by ash, farmers will be able to return and start farming immediately," she said. "Ash does provide some additional nutrients to plants, and it keeps insect pest numbers down. The farmers’ main problems will be from the ash in the area because most don’t wear dust masks."

Other environmental effects

The volcano’s sulfurous gas emissions cause acid rain, Ms. Brosnan reported. Acid rain is formed when hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere undergo a complex set of chemical reactions and eventually combine with water to produce sulfuric acid. Although the amount of acid rain produced by the volcano is small compared to that from fossil-fuel use, it can have an important effect in the local ecosystem, she said. Increased acidity of lakes and soil can make it difficult, sometimes impossible, for fish and plants to live.

In January 1996, Ms. Brosnan’s group measured high acid levels -- pH2 when pH7 is neutral and pH5 can damage a lake’s ecosystem -- in the lake at the top of Soufriere Hills’ Chances Peak. She said it is unclear whether there are any important biological consequences of those high acid levels in the area, but she did observe damaged plant life.

"In contrast to our first hikes up Chances Peak in 1994 before the volcano action, by 1996, we recorded almost no animal life close to the summit of the volcano, with one notable exception," she said. "To our surprise, we found hummingbirds flying within 300 meters of Chances Peak. The birds that we saw were settling territory disputes. Hummingbirds feed on nectar, and will defend food territories. We cannot imagine what food resources are left to defend, because most of the plant life is dead."

Ms. Brosnan reported the loss of vegetation near the crater summit has caused a severe erosion problem, with the mountain losing soil during each storm. Also, volcanic-ash emissions have covered some coral reefs. The island’s situation is serious, but hopeful -- if the activity relents.

"Nature is resilient and natural disturbances are a part of the life cycles of all ecosystems," Ms. Brosnan said. "Today, even in the most impacted zones, small green shoots continue to sprout, but these do not survive. Continued volcanic activity and erosion prevent reforestation. Sustained recovery will not take place until volcanic activity greatly reduces or stops."

Like the earth and waterways, the people of Montserrat can recover when Soufriere Hills calms down. But it will take time.

"It’s going to take a long time just to clean up," Ms. Meade said, explaining that things like roof portals often collapse under the weight of the ashes and gravel. "As long as we can see ash, feel the activity, we know we’re still in a disaster. Even if the volcanic activity stopped today, we’d need a few years to clean up and resettle."

Yvette Moore is managing editor of Response.

 

For an up-to-date look at what is happening in Montserrat and the United Methodist Committee on Relief's efforts there, see UMCOR's page on Montserrat or the UMCOR Hotline Index.

This page has been accessed times since September 4, 1997

See also: