From Reuters:
“La Palma evacuees see no end
to ordeal after month of volcanic eruption”
One month after the Cumbre Vieja
volcano erupted on the Spanish island of La Palma spewing red-hot lava and ash,
Culberta Cruz, her husband and their dog are living in a tiny caravan on a
parking lot and see no end to the ordeal in sight. "I'm tired, so tired
... but who are we to fight against nature?," the 56-year-old hospital
kitchen worker said, sitting on a camping chair. Her husband, banana grower
Tono Gonzalez, was pulling electric cables and water hoses to connect to the
vehicle, their French bulldog looking on. The couple have been living in the
small camping car for a month, constantly brushing volcanic ash off the vehicle.
"One day it's exploding there, the other a vent opens here, it's just
anguish and living in fear, waiting and praying for it to stop erupting,"
Cruz said. "And it's a lot of sadness for those who lost their
homes."
Streams of red-hot lava have engulfed
almost 800 hectares (2,000 acres) of land, destroying about 2,000 buildings and
many banana plantations since the eruption started on Sept. 19. More than 6,000
people have had to leave their homes. At sundown, dozens of villagers prayed in
front of a statue of the Virgin of Los Pinos, carried in a procession outside a
church from where the eruption was visible. "We come to ask her with faith
so that this ends as soon as possible because this is a great misfortune,"
said Laura Rodriguez, from the village of Tacande, after attending the
religious ceremony.
Carmen del Fresno, from the
National Geographic Institute's volcano monitoring department, told Reuters the
eruption was unlikely to stop for at least another week, but there was no way
to predict how long it would last. "Historical records show eruptions
lasting 24 to 84 days ... It would be logical to assume something within those
bounds, but we cannot risk (predicting) anything." After being ordered to
evacuate, Cruz and Gonzalez first stayed at a relative's farm and then took the
caravan to the parking lot where they could get fresh water and a bit of
electricity. They are now looking into renting an apartment that accepts pets. "We
don't know when it's going to stop, that's the problem. This is nature and we
have to deal with it, it's bigger than us," said Gonzalez.
^ This has to be extremely
difficult for the people there since they have no way of knowing when or if
things will return to normal. ^
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