NOS / Rop Zoutberg
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News from the NOS•today, 13:43
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Rop Zoutberg
correspondent Spain
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Rop Zoutberg
correspondent Spain
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The lava is up to thirty meters thick in some places and below it is incandescent. A year after the eruption of the volcano on La Palma, hundreds of Canary Island residents are still waiting for help.
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There was no way to stop it at that moment: when the eruption had already been going on for two months, the farm of Angela Merici, originally from Germany, also disappeared. Subsequently, the La Palma volcano spewed lava and ash for another month. Merici was left in shock.
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“I worked on my ecological farm with subtropical trees for ten years. I had no money, but I managed to build the company without subsidies. We started planting three years ago. When everything was ready, the volcano erupted,” recalls Merici.
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He knew immediately that it was the last day of his farm. “All I could save was my two kittens and a van. We went to a campsite a little further. I spent days in shock. There was a shower, a place for the cats. But no one else is. came to help me. ” . “
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Meters of thick layer
A year after the volcano erupted, he is one of around 1,000 islanders still awaiting help. In many cases, there are no papers to show that their home has disappeared under the meter thick layer. Victims also get stuck in the sticky bureaucracy.
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Merici also has this problem. All she has left of her is her van, two cats and some things she was allowed to collect at her house in fifteen minutes.
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NOS / Rop Zoutberg
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The landscape buried on La Palma –
The rash lasted 85 days. More than 1200 hectares have disappeared under the lava, on an island half the size of the province of Utrecht. 7,000 people have been evacuated in the area, hundreds of whom have yet to return due to high levels of carbon dioxide. Take the coastal town of Puerto de Naos, which has turned into a ghost town.
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There were a lot of nice words from the island government when the disaster happened. “But this has degenerated into favoritism, says banana grower Juan Carlos Rodriguez via Zoom.“ Some were helped, some not. We are desperate. We too must survive. “
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Rodriguez lost his banana plantation, even though his home was miraculously spared. Some money came from insurance. He succeeds for the moment by working the land with friendly peasants. Tonight there is a demonstration of the affected islanders, who are asking the island government that their cases be finally resolved.
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Cooling is slow
“In reality, the only solution is for the inhabitants of the buried land to be expropriated. They must then receive a sum of money that corresponds to the value of their property before the volcano exploded”, mutters the photographer Alfonso Escalero, who also lives in the Canary Islands. “If we don’t, we’ll never get out. Then we’ll kill each other again.”
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Escalero took thousands of photos of the disaster last year with a troupe of wildlife photographers. became famous his image of a cottage that has challenged the lava flow. He later disappeared into the burning land.
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Port a book with photos of the disaster and stories of the islanders. The proceeds go to affected residents.
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I love the world
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The “house of miracles” on La Palma –
Meanwhile, the cooling of the liquid rock is terribly slow. Under the cooled lava crust, the temperature soon reaches one hundred or two hundred degrees. Below it is even warmer. The affected area will be unusable for local residents, tourism or farmers for years to come.
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“People shouldn’t get that money just for their lost property. The government should designate places elsewhere on the island where they can rebuild their lives,” says Escalero.
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The originally German Angela Merici does not want to leave La Palma. Like other islanders, she looks for evidence that her farm is under the lava. She doesn’t want to know about her return to her hometown. “I don’t have anyone in Germany anymore.” She sees no other option than to insist on her ownership of a small piece of the island with the authorities.
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But it is not easy. Merici already fears that he will soon be in her van for a second Christmas. Somewhere along the side of the road in La Palma.
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