The rumbling Caribbean

CAN Montserrat survive? Its Soufrière Hills volcano has been intermittently spewing out ash and boulders for almost two years. Much of the island, including its capital, Plymouth, had already been evacuated before the volcano on June 25th sent rivers of red-hot rock and gas pouring at up to 200 kilometres an hour (125mph) through several villages to its north. Though most of their inhabitants had left, maybe 20 died. These were the first deaths since eruptions began on July 18th 1995. But at least a third of the island's once 11,000 people had already left. Many of the rest are crowded, landless and homeless, into emergency shelters. Total evacuation is unlikely. But this British colony, never rich, is asking whether it has a future.