Montserrat Today
For Tuesday November 18, 1997
Presented by the Information and Education Unit
of Montserrat's Emergency Department
THE VOLCANIC EXPLANATION:
Seismic activity at the Soufriere Hills Volcano continues at a low level with just a few long period and volcano-tectonic earthquakes. The long period signals are thought to be a result of de-gassing from the dome.
There have been about 100 rockfall signals in the last 24 hours but the location of these events is unknown because of very poor visibility.
The ash levels in the atmosphere as measured by the monitoring devices show very low levels of ash in the atmosphere at the present time.
DAVEY HILL HOUSING HANDED OVER:
The fifty completed houses at Davey Hill were handed over to the Government of Montserrat by the contractors, Brown & Root yesterday.
This afternoon there will be a meeting (at 2 pm) of all those persons who have been allocated houses on the scheme and a tour of the site.
Keys will be allocated later this week and the first residents are expected to move in by this coming weekend.
TEMPORARY COMMISSIONER OF POLICE APPOINTED:
The Royal Montserrat Police Force has a temporary Commissioner of Police. He is Mr Barry Young from England who has previously served as Deputy Commissioner of Police in the Turks & Caicos Islands. He has been appointed for 3 months until the substantive Commissioner is appointed in 1998.
CABLE TV TO INSTALL EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM:
It has been announced that Cable TV of Montserrat will install an emergency audio broadcast system so that all channels on TV can be interrupted in case there is a need to make an emergency broadcast to the nation if volcanic activity increases.
The technical equipment is currently on order and will be purchased from a grant from Britain. Cable TV of Montserrat will install the equipment on its arrival.
EFFORTS TO MOVE BLOCK MAKING PLANT:
In the recent slightly lower level of volcanic activity. officials have been trying to retrieve the block making plant from Lovers Lane. The plant, the only one of its kind on island, is sited adjacent to previous pyroclastic flows in Upper Dagenham.
The high cost of blocks produced overseas and the delivery delays have affected most construction projects on island. The project to take out the plant is spearheaded by representatives of M.S. Osborne Ltd working in close collaboration with MVO officials.
CHIEF MINISTER VISITS GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS:
The Chief Minister of Montserrat, Hon David S. Brandt is paying familiarization visits to various Government Depts around the island. Over the course of the week he is hoping to visit all the departments and yesterday he visited all those situated in the Central Zone. Today he moves on to the northern zone and starts with the Ministry of Finance at Hilltop.
EMERGENCY TEAM INVITED TO VISIT GUADELOUPE:
Following a visit to Montserrat last week by a team of officials in disaster management from Guadeloupe, the Prefecture of Guadeloupe has invited disaster officials from Montserrat for a reciprocal visit early in December. The team would include representatives from the MVO to talk to their counterparts at the Observatoires Volcanologiques in Guadeloupe.
More information tomorrow....................................