UN Seeks $29M For St. Vincent Amid New Volcanic Threats
Apr 21, 2021, 5:22 AM
Plumes of ash billow from the La Soufrière volcano on the island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines which started erupting on 9th April. The volcano had been dormant since 1979, it started spewing smoke and actively rumbling in December 2020. La Soufrière erupted last Friday 9th April 2021, blanketing Saint Vincent in a layer of ash and forcing some 16,000 residents to evacuate their homes to cruise ships and safer parts of the island. (Navin Pato Patterson/United Nations)
(Navin Pato Patterson/United Nations)
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The United Nations says it is seeking $29.2 million to help St. Vincent recover from ongoing volcanic eruptions that have destroyed homes and crops, contaminated water supplies and displaced up to 20% of people in the eastern Caribbean island.
The U.N. resident coordinator for Barbados and the eastern Caribbean said Tuesday the situation is “apocalyptic.”
St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said officials are still quantifying the damage, but that rebuilding will run “in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” on top of “massive” humanitarian relief needs.
