Montserrat had also suffered their own very significant misfortune when the Soufrière Hills volcano erupted, causing widespread devastation to the island. Seismic activity had occurred in 1897-1898, 1933-1937, and again in 1966-1967, but the eruption that began on 18 July 1995 was the first since the 16th century in Montserrat. When pyroclastic flows and mudflows began occurring regularly, the national capital, Plymouth, was evacuated, and a week later a pyroclastic flow buried the city under several metres of debris. The British navy ship took a large role in evacuating Montserrat's population to other islands; this included Antigua and Barbuda, who warned they would not be able to cope with many more refugees. About 7,000 people, or two-thirds of the whole population, fled Montserrat; 4,000 of those to the United Kingdom. These catastrophic events understandably had a major impact on football in Montserrat and the team did not compete at all for four years. When they returned they had to play all of their matches away from Montserrat after the eruptions had destroyed not merely the only football stadium of an international standard, but rendered half the entire island uninhabitable.