The chief scientist monitoring the La Soufrière volcano, Professor Richard Robertson, described Monday as “dotish” and not an act of courage, a man’s decision to climb the explosive volcano on Sunday.
“It’s totally foolish… it’s totally dotish to do that. People talk about courage and for me someone is brave when you are aware of the risks you are putting yourself through because of some positive job or they need to make a fundamental contribution to society and you are still taking the steps to save your family or something like that, ”said Robertson in response to the incident.
“So you are aware of the risk. You know you could get killed or you know you could get hurt, but you still do it. That is a brave person. A brave person is not someone who goes up the mountain, putting themselves and their parties at risk and the people who might have to save them, ”the volcano added.
A video has been circulating on social media showing the man, later identified as “our guide,” heading to the summit of the volcano that has been erupting since April 9 and has forced the evacuation of more than 16,000 people in the Red Zone area.
In the video, the person is seen without a face mask, taking video selfies at the smoldering crater and describing the scene, while a strong wind is blowing, and steam rising from the cauldron. He also captures a video of a person climbing.
Robertson said that person is “not brave, to me, that person is just dotish. I would suggest that acting like that is not sensible. At this time I think for me, people in St Vincent need to be brave, be brave for what we have to face. We have to face a country where we will experience tremendous destruction from the volcano.
“We have to be very brave to face the circumstances. If we want to live in this truly beautiful land, we have to deal with the volcano, we have to deal with the dangers. You have to be brave to protect your brave family.
“Going up the mountain at this time where you could be killed or where you could kill people with you; or you could inspire people who saw you who it is sensible to do the same, it’s not brave, that’s dumb, that’s what I would call it. I’m sorry if I offend anyone with that kind of language, ”he said.
On Sunday, the volcano continued its pattern of eruptions with the University of the West Indies (UWI) Center for Seismic Research (SRC), reporting that the episode of sustained seismic eruptions generated by explosive activity at La Soufrière, lasted until about 9.00 pm. (local time).
In its latest bulletin, the SRC said that these small long-term hybrid earthquakes began to be recorded again, at a rate similar to before the explosive activity. He said this rate had dropped significantly in the early hours of Monday. (CMC)