Storm nears island

Press, 23 August 1976, Page 6

Storm nears island

NZPA Pointe-a-Pitre Hurricane Emmy is moving menacingly towards Guadaloupe, where the erupting Soufriere volcano has already created an emergency. On Saturday night, the cyclone was some 800 km to the east, but moving in at a rate of 10 to 12 knots if the storm did not change course, it could hit the West Indian islands today. Local French Government authorities have a hurricane emergency plan on tap. The problem is that it would conflict with measures already

11 taken under the volcano threat. The hurricane defence drill called for the population to take shelter in solidly constructed official or administrative buildings. The conflict lay in the fact that many of them were already occupied by the tens of thousands of refugees evacuated a week ago from the area directly threatened by the Soufriere. In Honduras, on the opposite side of the Caribbean Sea, the coastal area was put on alert against the possibility of a tidal wave set off by the Guadeloupe eruption. Similar emergency warnings

had already been issued three days ago for the northern part of Costa Rica. Scientific observation headquarters in Guadeloupe reported that 52 seismic shocks had been registered at the volcano on Saturday and that its summit was enveloped in a cloud of ash 60m high. Starting yesterday, a daily scientific bulletin will be issued. Mr Olivier Stim, France’s Secretary of State for Overseas Departments and Territories, left Guadeloupe on Saturday night to report back to the Government in Paris.