Director of the Department of Emergency Management, Kerry Hinds. (FP)
The alert level of the underwater volcano Kick ‘em Jenny, located near Grenada, has been raised from yellow to orange, but there is no indication of it posing any immediate danger to Barbados.
Director of the Department of Emergency Management (DEM), Kerry Hinds, gave the assurance that her agency was closely monitoring the situation and appealed to ships and marine operators to observe the exclusion zone of 5km or 3.1 miles off the volcano.
“We are monitoring the situation, which has been brought to our attention by the Seismic Research Centre (SRC) of the University of the West Indies in Trinidad,” she stated.
Ms. Hinds emphasised that there was currently no tsunami threat to Barbados, and reminded the public that any official advisories on the volcano, if necessary, would be issued through the DEM and the Barbados Government Information Service under advice from officials at the SRC.
The Grenada National Disaster Management Agency is presently collaborating with the SRC to monitor Kick ‘em Jenny, which has shown increasing signs of activity since Saturday.
An orange alert for the volcano means that there are highly elevated levels of seismic and or fumarolic activity, or other unusual activity. Eruption may begin with less than 24 hours’ notice.