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Abstract

Caribbean Small Island Developing States are exposed to a multiplicity of natural hazards and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, home of La Soufriere Volcano, is one of the most disaster-prone. Overcoming the challenges associated with operating a geophysical monitoring network aimed at providing early warning of an impending eruption has required the use of several strategies. A key component of these have been building partnership with local disaster management officials and community members in high-risk zones on the volcano. We have worked with disaster management officials and community members to help them develop Community Volcano Emergency Plans (CVEPs) that incorporated multi-hazard mapping, vulnerability and capacity assessments, training and equipping of Community Emergency Response teams and testing of plans through simulation exercises. Activities such as evacuation routing, identification of shelters and muster points and stocking of emergency supplies were all integral elements in these plans.CVEPs aim to effectively illustrate the role of and actively engage with monitoring scientists, disaster management agencies and citizens in dealing with volcanic emergencies. The 2020–2021 eruption of La Soufrière volcano served as an important test to the entire system. The eruption involved a series of explosions from 9–22 April 2021 that were preceded by three months of effusive activity, which commenced with a very low level of detected unrest. It occurred against the backdrop of the Covid pandemic which presented multiple challenges to effective response. In this presentation we share our experience of integrating community response with EWS and review its performance during the 2020-21 eruption.