Because nobody knows what was happening so everybody was just kind of panicking and you know … and then they get on the radio and they say that you have to move, you have to … and here we go, just pack a bag, overnight bag, here we go, we’ve gotta get the kids, you’ve gotta get everybody, and then it’s like from that day we was like move today, come back tomorrow, you move, you come back in three days, you move, you come back in a week … it’s just being going and going until all this time, it’s morning you wake up, you clean the house, wipe the windows, sweep the dust, and by this evening, it’s back.
– Monsterrat Resident, 2019
As a series of pyroclastic flows bury parts of Plymouth in August 1997, many Montserratians are forced to leave behind their homes to live in shelters or leave the island. Credit: John McConnico / Shutterstock.
For many years I had my evacuation bag in my vehicle, because you just never knew when you would have to leave. I would have my evacuation bag, my passport in my bag, my child’s passport in my bag, all my personal stuff I would have, I would never leave them at home even though we weren’t living [near the evacuation area] any more. Took me a while to let it go
– Montserrat Resident, 2019
We’re moving and going back, moving and going back. And then you have the children to tangle with. It is really devastating, and then children asking questions and you don’t have the answers to give, and everybody getting scared and you know, you don’t know what to do.
– Montserrat Resident, 2019
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