'We live next to active volcano that's nearly killed us twice – but won't move'

A woman and her daughter said they were both lucky to be alive after escaping a catastrophic volcanic eruption in Montserrat that wiped out two thirds of the island. Olivette and Adena Johnson spoke exclusively to The Mirror about how they avoided death twice after fleeing the devastating Soufriere Hills blasts of the mid-1990s.

What's even more remarkable is that the mother and daughter duo are still living on the Caribbean island today while the volcano, which has not had a major eruption since 2010, remains active. Adena documents life on Montserrat on her TikTok page, showing it off in all its colourful glory, but she admitted getting to this stage was tough.

She said: "We relocated to the island of St Thomas [in the US Virgin Islands]. We stayed for about two years and after that, I think my mum and I had enough and we really missed home. We moved back to Montserrat."

The 35-year-old and her mum first caught the attention of the world after making a three-part TikTok video series, on her @adenadmj channel, explaining why they live next to an active volcano. But eagle-eyed viewers knew she was not referring to just any volcano.

This year marked 30 years since Soufriere Hills first erupted after being dormant for nearly a century. Locals were sent fleeing as pyroclastic flows swallowed up nearby homes and businesses while cities, including the former capital Plymouth, became ghost towns.

Two years later in 1997, a more devastating eruption occurred – one which forced the Johnsons and other families to move to other countries, including the UK as Montserrat is a British overseas territory. About 19 people were killed by the eruptions.

Since then, an exclusion zone is in force, covering two-thirds of the island and most people, except scientists and government-approved tour guides, are not allowed in.

Following the eruptions, the population of Montserrat plunged from 11,500 to 1,200, but has since bounced back up to 4,395.

Olivette, 68, recalled two harrowing moments. The first was when she, Adena, relatives and friends crammed into a car to evacuate after officials ordered people to leave. But the evacuation order took the lifelong Montserratian by surprise.

"When I heard the siren and when they said we had to evacuate, I never even knew that we had a volcano!" she admitted. "But after that, we were the first village to evacuate. We had to move a good distance to another village.

"I remember that when they said we were to evacuate, it was Adena and I. I have a sister and she has two children, and she had somebody else with her, and all of us got in one car. Seven of us in one car. It was filled, so we had to move out and go to another village."

She added: "When we looked out the window, there were the scientists and them coming up, driving, coming up my way. They stopped by my gate and they said: 'You all have to get out now because what's going on is not so good'."

The second harrowing moment was when she saw a friend being airlifted by helicopter while seeing parts of the island being swallowed up by the volcano's pyroclastic flows.

She said: "And then you see the helicopter, [I] saw where he was, pick him up and a cousin of mine and bring them over on top of the hill where we were watching everything going down to the sea. So I could say that I missed death twice."

Adena was only a child at the time of the eruptions, but she still remembered how the island's churches became makeshift shelters for families, including hers.

"A lot of us had to move," the marketing professional said. "We moved from [the village of] Long Ground and we ended up going to a shelter at Judy Piece Church. A lot of the churches across Montserrat became shelters because there was not enough space to hold everyone. So, churches, community centres and so forth were utilised to shelter us. We stayed in the church for a while."

At the time of the eruptions, Olivette was working from home as a seamstress making outfits for the Montserrat police force – a job she still does to this day. After being forced to flee her home, fears about how she could raise money for her children grew – but support came from an unexpected source.

Adena revealed: "At that point we were living at the church and my mum was working at the airport."

Her mum clarified: "So because I used to do my sewing at home and I don't have anywhere to go, he [her colleague] told me that I could bring my sewing machine at the airport in the duty-free shop and do my sewing there."

Sadly for Olivette and everyone at WH Bramble Airport, the respite proved short-lived as they were soon forced to evacuate – the volcano had decimated the airport. One of the country's main gateways to salvation was cut off and remains in the exclusion zone to this day.

The family managed to move to the US Virgin Islands for a while. But, as mentioned earlier, they became homesick and returned to their home. It is something they do not regret.

Three decades later, the Johnsons are enjoying life in their home in Gerald's, a village in the north of Montserrat and 2.5 miles east of the new capital Brades. When they first moved here, they got stuck into the rebuilding efforts, clearing volcanic ash away from parts of their neighbourhood and adjusting to their new life.

Now, they enjoy living in a tight-knit community and are proud to show a side to Montserrat that has risen from the ashes.

"I like where we live," Adena beamed. "It's a very community-oriented village. The beauty about living in Montserrat, and the smallness of our size, it just makes us a little bit more tight knit. So, it's a case where, you know, we have our neighbours – let's say we're travelling, and we just tell our neighbour, 'Hey, just look out for my house while I'm gone', he would."

On top of working her marketing job, Adena uses TikTok to share her family's story of survival, especially for younger generations who were not around to experience the horror that struck the island first-hand.

She concluded: "There's a generation in Montserrat that probably has never experienced a volcanic eruption and there are probably not people around that are willing to share their stories as such. And for me, I really wanted to use the platform to bring more awareness to some of the volcano stories because those are the stories that sort of shape who we are as Montserratians."