The Soufrière Hills volcano (French “Sulphur” Hills) is an active complex stratovolcano with many lava domes forming its summit on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. After a long period of dormancy, it became active in 1995, and has continued to erupt ever since. Its eruptions have rendered more than half of Montserrat uninhabitable, destroying the capital city, Plymouth, and causing widespread evacuations: about two thirds of the population left the island. Seismic activity had occurred in 1897–1898, 1933–1937, and again in 1966–1967, but the eruption that began on July 18, 1995, was the first since the 17th century. When pyroclastic flows and mudflows began occurring regularly, Plymouth was evacuated, and a few weeks later a pyroclastic flow covered the city in several metres of debris. A large eruption on June 25, 1997, resulted in the deaths of nineteen people. The island’s airport was directly in the path of the main pyroclastic flow and was completely destroyed. Montserrat’s tourist industry was also destroyed. However, it is now regenerating. The governments of the United Kingdom and Montserrat led the aid effort, including a £41 million package provided to the people of Montserrat; however, riots followed as the people protested that the British Government was not doing enough to aid relief.