Evacuations continue on the Spanish island of La Palma where the Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted on Sunday. Due to “the appearance of a new eruptive mouth” in the Tacande area, in the municipality of El Paso, 500 additional people had to flee their homes overnight from Monday to Tuesday, bringing the total to 6,000 displaced persons. , said the emergency rescue service of the archipelago.
The opening of this eruptive mouth came after a new earthquake with a magnitude of 4.1, recorded at 9:32 p.m. (8:32 p.m. GMT), according to the Canary Islands Volcanological Institute (Involcan).
166 buildings destroyed
“It’s practically your whole life that leaves like that … The volcano wakes up, it says ‘I’m going out this way’ and it almost puts your whole life in the air”, laments Israel Castro Hernandez, whose home was destroy. At his side, his wife Yurena Torres Abreu still does not realize. “We can’t believe it. We tell ourselves that our house is now under this volcano. There is nothing to do, it’s nature, ”she blurted out, disillusioned.
If it did not make any victims, this eruption, which is the first since 1971 on the populated island of nearly 85,000 inhabitants, caused enormous damage. The images broadcast by the media, authorities and residents show black and orange flows slowly rolling down the sides of the volcano and engulfing trees, roads and houses in their path. The volcano destroyed a total of 166 buildings and lava covers 103 hectares, according to the European system of geospatial measurements Copernicus, which posted on Twitter a satellite image of the island showing the affected areas.
Risk of toxic gases
The authorities are now awaiting the arrival of lava in the sea, initially scheduled for Monday evening but delayed by the slowing of the flows. A feared encounter because of its potential dangerousness because it can give rise to explosions, waves of boiling water and the emanation of toxic gases, according to the United States Institute of Geological Studies (USGS). The regional government of the Canaries has therefore asked the curious not to go to the area and has decreed an “exclusion radius of two nautical miles” around the place where the arrival of the lava flows is expected.
The Cumbre Vieja spews columns of smoke reaching several hundred meters high and between 8,000 and 10,500 tonnes of sulfur dioxide per day, according to the Involcan. The airspace, however, was not closed. All flights scheduled for Monday at La Palma airport have arrived or left and 48 others are scheduled for Tuesday, Spanish airport manager Aena announced on Tuesday morning. “The island is now cut in two”, sums up Juan Aragón Cruz, who also had to leave his home. “We know when it started, but we don’t know how long it will last”.