April 13, 2019, will mark 40 years since the last eruption of La Soufriere Volcano. To commemorate this 40th Anniversary, the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) will conduct one month of activities during the period April 4 to May 4, 2019, focusing on community preparedness for a volcanic eruption and sensitizing the public about the ‘Volcanic Emergency Evacuation’ aspect of the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) Component of the Trade Winds Exercise 2019.

The activities to commemorate the 40th Anniversary will be officially launched during a ‘Soufriere Blow Out Exhibition’ scheduled to take place on Friday, April 12 at the car park next to the Postal Corporation in Kingstown.

This will be followed by the annual Public Educational Field Trip to the La Soufriere Volcano via the Leeward side of the island on Saturday, April 13. On Sunday April 14, there will be the Views on Issues Programme focusing on the monitoring of the volcano over the past 40 years. The other activities include schools’ exhibition, educational field trips and art workshops. Activities at the community level include volcano movie nights, and community evacuation planning.

The activities to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the eruption of La Soufriere volcano will be conducted in collaboration with the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre (UWI-SRC) and with support from the Soufriere Monitoring Unit (SMU), the Forestry Division and the UWI SRC Volcano Ready Communities Project SVG.