Local Vincentians rally to raise volcano relief

People in Ottawa with ties to the Caribbean island chain of St. Vincent and the Grenadines are raising money to help people affected by the ongoing eruption of La Soufrière volcano, which began earlier this month.

Thick, choking ash has covered much of St. Vincent, the chain's largest island, destroying crops and livestock. Between 16,000 and 20,000 people have been evacuated from the eruption zone in the island's northern section.

"You see the pictures and you see the kids and you hear the kids screaming," Suzette Weekes, president of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Association of Ottawa, told CBC Radio's In Town and Out. "I'm talking and I'm choking up with tears. It is very sad."

Weekes was a child living on St. Vincent the last time La Soufrière erupted in 1979. Until recently, the northern section of the island was a lush, green "paradise," Weekes said.

Ash falling like snow

"There's no longer that greenery. All that is covered by a thick blanket of ashes. You look at it and it is sad," she said.

Weekes said even her family's balcony in the capital of Kingstown, far from the eruption zone, is caked in ash from the volcano to the north.

"You just see the ashes coming down ... and we call it snow ashes," she said. "It's devastating."

Weekes said the pandemic is only complicating the crisis, because now so many evacuees are crowded together.

To raise money to send back home, her association is hosting silent auctions starting Monday and running until April 26.

"It's a long road to recovery," she said.