The site of Montserrat’s original airport
I flew out of the W.H. Bramble airport in 1995, as many Montserratians were choosing to leave for other Caribbean islands, Canada and the UK. But no-one used it ever again after the 25th June 1997 eruption of the Soufriere Hills killed 19, and destroyed the airport.
Today I’m on Jack Boy Hill looking down on a swathe of ash and rubble with only a few indications that there was ever any human presence on this landscape. Between me and the volcanic deposits is a locked gate: I’m on the edge of the exclusion zone. Go beyond that gate and you are committing a criminal act, and if you’re not Montserratian that results in deportation.
Jean White of the Montserrat National Trust remembers the destruction of the airport well. “I flew out on 24th June for a short break in the States, the day before it was destroyed.”
She wasn’t to return for a year. The island now had no airport and no ferry service (the terminal was at the destroyed capital of Plymouth). She also now had nowhere to live on the island. Her husband told her to stay away for a year while he made arrangements to build a new house on a plot of land outside the threatened area.
She recalls how nervous her friend Sarita was taking her to the airport. Jean told her not to wait after dropping her off and reflects on her close shave. “I told my friends ‘the Good Lord was looking after me that day’.”
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This is just one of the stories that informs my talk Montserrat – volcano in paradise
Will they ever build on this land again or is it in the volcano fall zone and therefore too dangerous?
The areas of recent lava flow on Iceland remain desolate but thats now covered in crusty plates rather than ash
I can’t see it being built on again. It’s only just in the exclusion zone but it’s at the foot of a valley which is an obvious channel for pyroclastic flows. It’s very close to where I was on August 21st 1995 when I witnessed the first eruption and saw an ash cloud coming down the valley towards me and wondered whether my number was up. They’ve sited the new airport some distance away in the north.