Nature tough on island

When Montserrat's soca singer Arrow recorded his worldwide hit song "Hot! Hot! Hot!" in 1982, he couldn't have known how hot it was going to get.

But first it was wet, wet, wet when Hurricane Hugo blasted the island on its way to Charleston in September 1989. The Category 5 storm damaged or destroyed nearly every structure, including the island nation's only hospital.

After six years of rebuilding, Montserrat was almost back to normal. Plymouth, the country's capital and population center, was bustling again. A new hospital was almost finished.

But unknown to most, swarms of little earthquakes had begun during that time. Nothing that people really noticed, except for volcanologists.

Montserrat and the rest of the Lesser Antilles are volcanic islands on the edge of the Atlantic and Caribbean tectonic plates. When those plates make noise, something is going to happen.

And it happened July 18, 1995. The Soufriere Hills Volcano violently spewed steam and ash from its northwest crater. A month later, a huge explosion shot so much ash into the air that Plymouth was as dark as night for 15 minutes during the middle of the day.

Those explosions sparked a series of evacuations that became permanent in 1996 and saved thousands of lives. Only 19 people were killed, mostly farmers who ignored warnings.

Throughout 1997, a series of pyroclastic flows destroyed Plymouth, many government offices, the nation's only airport, its main port, its new hospital and most farmland. Two-thirds of the country have been off-limits ever since.

The Montserrat Volcano Observatory has monitored the eruption and issued warnings, educating citizens and government officials.

Based on television shows and movies, many people think that volcanos explode, ooze a bunch of molten lava on everything, and it's over. But that is not the case with Soufriere, a lava dome complex that continues to be active 12 years after coming to life.

Hot viscous lava is pushing slowly upward and piling up, forming growing domes and walls that suddenly collapse under their own weight or are blasted out in violent explosions. These create pyroclastic flows of lava boulders, volcanic ash and gases that can reach temperatures of 1,000 degrees, travel up to 70 mph and reach the sea four miles away.

Over the years, pyroclastic flows have regularly raced down valleys in all directions, destroying villages and farmland on the southern part of the island. The last major flow, the largest ever, occurred in January 2007, but things have been relatively quiet since.

Volcanic ash can be a health hazard to humans and animals, killing vegetation where it falls. Most of that is over Plymouth and the southwestern part of the Exclusion Zone. Heavy rains also cause repeated mud flows of ash that have buried some areas under more than 30 feet.

With no place to live on much of the island, most Montserratians were evacuated to Great Britain, the United States and nearby islands. The ones who remained had to move to the northwest section, which was sparsely populated before the eruption.

The formerly quiet Little Bay is becoming the center of society and serving as the country's only port. New construction nearby includes government offices, a prison, an airport and housing for displaced residents.

Developers have proposed a marina and tourist lodging at Little Bay, which has met with mixed emotions from residents.

Great Britain has been footing the bill to keep the country afloat and is urging Montserrat to develop tourism and anything else that can help the island become more self-sufficient.