The lava on La Palma does not flow into the sea, but into the width. She has already destroyed 300 houses
Adelfo Gómez and his wife María Silvia Marrero had just renovated their bathroom for 6,000 euros. “The thermal bath alone cost 500 euros,” reports Gómez. How unimportant that seems when the lava is blazing outside. The couple, he is 79 and she is 75, rushes through the house to collect the most important things: papers, clothes and photos. The picture of Marrero’s deceased parents on the living room cupboard, the photo albums of your own wedding and those of your grandchildren. “At least I can save the memories,” Marrero told a reporter from La Vanguardia. And almost nothing else.
The nameless volcano that erupted on Sunday in the south of the Canary Island continues to spew out lava and will likely continue to do so for weeks. But the black tongue of rubble from inside, which is more than 1000 degrees Celsius, hardly rolls further towards the sea. Instead, it goes in width and height. By Wednesday evening she had buried a good one and a half square kilometers of land and around 300 houses. And even if it almost seems to stand still, it continues to grow at the edges, taking itself house by house. People are trying to save what can be saved.
The fascination for the spectacle of fire and noise among the locals decreases with each passing day. The people in the east of the island, in the main town of Santa Cruz de La Palma, do their everyday business as if the volcano at the other end of the island was none of their business. What are they supposed to do? People in the West sink into worry, a little more every day. “If you don’t have depression yet, you are on the verge of it,” says Jonay Pérez, city councilor in El Paso, in an interview with “El País”. His mother lost five pounds in two days. She ran a grocery store in El Paraíso. The lava swallowed him up. “Most of us were born here,” says Pérez. “We have lost our whole life.” Or: everything but her life.
“The nerves are bare everywhere,” says the German Thomas Klaffke, who runs a guesthouse in the west of the island. “My nerves are a bit bare too. You just have damage … you can only cry. And then you have to console someone else again. “
Banana harvest is threatened
After all, Klaffke was able to visit his house in the La Bombilla settlement for 20 minutes on Thursday – the police did not allow longer. If it goes bad, the lava will pass here on the way to the sea. At the moment she doesn’t seem to want to do that. The area has been evacuated since Sunday because you never know how things will turn out. Now Klaffke has at least saved the most important documents from his house.
Down in La Bombilla, very close to the coast, Klaffke saw the banana farmers at work. They are trying to save their crops. Apart from tourism, La Palma lives on bananas. “The volcano will not only destroy production this year,” says Adai Pererroya, one of the many small farmers on the island, in an interview with “El Mundo”. “The land will no longer be fertile. It is a tragedy for the whole island. “
Many see the future as black as the ash that covers houses and faces. The government tries to take their worst worries away. The Minister of Agriculture promises “public coverage” of the losses. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has already visited the island twice to assure the locals of the solidarity of all Spaniards.
“This is not a tourist attraction,” says banana farmer Arturo Camacho to “El Mundo”. “This is an economic and social catastrophe.” Every catastrophe has an end, but at the moment it is impossible to foresee when. The volcano could still be active for a month or two or three. La Palma will feel the consequences of the outbreak for a long time.
