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Montserrat with Van Insurance

Montserrat is a British territory in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean Sea.

The island is only ten miles long and seven miles wide. Christopher Columbus in 1493 gave the island its name on his second visit to the New World.

Because of the many Irish descendants and the fact that the island is very much like coastal Ireland it is often called the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean.

Hurricane Hugo hit Montserrat in 1989 when ninety per cent of the islands buildings were damaged wiping out most of the tourist trade on which the island heavily relied. Montserrat recovered in only a few years but was unfortunately hit again.

This time Montserrat was hit by the eruption of the normally dormant Soufrier Hills volcano in 1995. Many of the residents of Plymouth, the islands capital, were forced to move as the damage spread through the town, docking area and airport. The new airport opened in 2005 at Gerald’s to the north of the island.