This Entire Island Has to Evacuate Because a Volcano Is About to Blow

(WELLINGTON, New Zealand) — Vanuatu officials on Thursday ordered the complete evacuation of an island in the Pacific archipelago where a rumbling, belching volcano is threatening to blow. Government spokesman Hilaire Bule said ministers decided they couldn’t risk people’s lives and so ordered the compulsory evacuation of Ambae island, which is home to about 11,000 people. Island resident Lilian Garae said she could see “smoke coming out from the hills” and hear regular booming noises from the Manaro volcano. She said she was waiting to hear when she might have to leave her home and where she might be sent. Ambae is one of about 65 inhabited islands in the Pacific nation about one-quarter of the way from Australia to Hawaii. Officials last weekend raised the activity measure of the volcano to Level 4, on a scale in which Level 5 represents a major eruption. On Monday officials declared an emergency and had been relocating people close to the volcano to other parts of the island. New Zealand’s military flew over the volcano on Tuesday, and said huge columns of smoke, ash and volcanic rocks were billowing from the crater. Some residents have already left the island voluntarily. For them, it’s a waiting game to see whether the volcano erupts or returns to normal activity that’s not a threat. Officials say they have no real way of predicting what the volcano will do next and that evacuees will just have to wait it out. Bule said th...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized onetime Vanuatu Source Type: news