The volcano on La Palma has been silent since Monday. But the people on the island cannot breathe easy yet.
Rüdiger Wastl holds back his joy for the time being: “Whether the thing is really over or not, we don’t know yet.” For the German who lives on La Palma, the following applies: “Before that has not been completely silent for a week , I don’t trust the roast. “
“Das Ding” is the nameless volcano that erupted almost three months ago on the small Canary Island. He has been silent since Monday: no noise, hardly any smoke, almost no lava. If things have remained quiet for a short time in the past few weeks, the volcanologists have declared: As long as sulfur dioxide emissions do not decrease significantly and the strength and number of tremors decrease, there is still no end in sight. Now both have happened.
Two weeks ago the volcano released 40,000 tons of sulfur dioxide in one day, and 5,000 tons earlier this week. On Monday, people in the communities around the volcano were asked to stay at home because of the gas leak. Then suddenly the sulfur dioxide emissions dropped to 100 tons. And the seismograph recorded tremors like in pre-volcano times.
Everyone responds to the good news in their own way. Rüdiger Wastl, from whom the volcano stole his house on the very first day, tends to be cautious. He says what authorities and experts say: The volcano must have been silent for a week to ten days in order to be declared inactive. In 1949, another volcano in the south of the island had been quiet for five days when it began to spit lava again – only to finally retire. That could also happen in this case. Either way, everything currently suggests that the end of the drama is nigh.
“There is no other topic of conversation on the island,” says Thomas Klaffke, a German resident. “Most of them wear a mask. But above that you can see your eyes flashing for a long time, with joy and hope. ”Klaffke’s house is still standing, but he had to leave it on the first day because it was in an area prone to lava. After all, the lava flow spared it. He stayed with a friend in the north of the island. But now he’s optimistic: “I think I’ll be out of here in a week or two. Later this year. Maybe even on Christmas Eve. “
The authorities are more cautious. In a “more or less near future” people will be able to return to their homes, but “not soon”, says Ángel Morcuende from the Canarian volcano protection agency Pevolca. Thomas Klaffke would like things to happen quickly. His house is his business: he rents three rooms there to travelers. “I need at least three or four weeks to get my house under control again. And then it should continue with the rentals. ”In addition to the personal hopes for the whole island: that the airlines will soon resume their flights to La Palma. “I believe that things will quickly pick up again.”
Around 7,000 people, almost a tenth of the island’s population, had to leave their homes after the volcanic eruption and are mostly staying with friends, some even in hotels. The lava buried a good twelve square kilometers of populated land and destroyed around 1,600 houses. Finding a new home for its residents is the island’s greatest challenge. Rüdiger Wastl has just found a new house for rent with his wife and child, “we can now live there for the next year”. The volcano is not far away, “at the moment it is evaporating a little”. That means: A little smoke is still rising, “but not nearly as much as before”.
