These eruptions were like day turning to night, literally. So black. I’ve never seen anything so black. You put your hands out in front of you and you can’t even see your hands. Even if you had a torchlight it was really difficult to see through the thickness. It was really unnerving.
– Montserrat Resident, 2019
Ash and other pyroclastic material spread after an explosion of Soufrière Hills Volcano on 8 January 2010. Credit: Paul Cole.
It was raining ash. It was really mud falling. It was happening so fast, you couldn’t drive in it because it was just too slick. So we stayed put, and waited to the morning to see what was going on, because at this point there was no electricity so we couldn’t tell what was going on – it was really eery. After a while we started smelling the smell of burnt material, it smelt as if the house was actually burning and we were seeing what looked like smoke in the house. So we were looking around the house to see if something in the house was burning. But when I looked outside into the ghaut below, I thought, I’ve never seen a cloud that low in the ghaut before.
– Montserrat Resident, 2019
One Day At A Time
‘Another ash cloud rises high
Eclipse your soul, darkens the sky
But to this land our hearts are bind
Let’s go on one day at a time’
– Extract from Song 'One Day At A Time' by Arrow
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