Montserrat, 23 September 2016

.

We are about to enter into the high risk volcanic zone.

.

You can only get in there when all is quiet and no volcanic activity is detected.

.

All these images are from the abandoned capital of Plymouth.

.

You have to go in with a trained operator.  The car must be parked facing the way out and the engine kept running at all times.  Pyroclastic flows can be lightning fast.  Entry has only been allowed since 2015 and permission will be withdrawn if there is more activity.

.

Looking south from the old wharf.

.

Government House, the residence of the Governor.

.

This is how it appeared in 1915.

(By National Archives, UK – Public Domain).

.

This is the Molyneaux Building, built in 1989 as the corporate office for Cable and Wireless and the Government’s Audit Department.  It was the only building built entirely of concrete and was the town’s tallest building at four stories high.

.

Much of the centre of Plymouth is actually completely buried beneath the ash and debris and there have been several layers through different eruptions.

.

This is the Flora Fountain Hotel, built in 1984 and named for the fountain in the middle of the circular wing you can see in the distance.

.

Plymouth was evacuated in 1995, then abandoned and destroyed in 1997.

.

No-one died in Plymouth itself but 19 people died further inland at Streatham Village in a pyroclastic flow in 1997, though the village was officially evacuated.

.

On the left, the circular wing of the Flora Fountain hotel, the top floors.

.

Top floor of the Police Station.

.

This is the building behind the Flora Fountain Hotel.

.

Government Building.

.

After the 1997 eruption, about 7,000 people, two-thirds of the population, left Montserrat and  4,000 went to the UK.  The current population is around 5,000.

.

An abandoned office.

.

Many of the buildings on the hill in the background were not completely destroyed by the eruption but the whole area will be uninhabitable for many years.

.

In early 1998, there was a bank robbery in the vaults of an abandoned bank in Plymouth.  The robbers made six or seven visits to the bank and got away with $US300,000.  Eight people were arrested a few months later and most convicted.  The banks at least initially would not recognise stolen notes with listed ID numbers that had become in circulation.

.

Buildings above the inundation zone, still inaccessible.

.

Some areas saw more than twelve metres of mud and debris.

.

We visited an abandoned sugar windmill tower in Richmond Hill, just outside the exclusion zone.

.

We were able to climb up and see the view.

.

Just because buildings are just outside the exclusion zone does not mean they can be reoccupied.

.

.

.

.

.

On the far left with the brown rooves is the Montserrat Springs Hotel, that we shall visit in the next post.

.

These were once upmarket dwellings.

.

(See previous post for details of the fascinating history of Montserrat).

(Trivia note:  Just passed 1,000 posts a few posts ago).