Status: 02.10.2021 3:54 a.m.
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The volcano on La Palma is far from having enough. Scientists believe it will stay active for weeks. Many have lost everything. Still, you don’t want to give up hope.
By Reinhard Spiegelhauer, ARD Studio Madrid
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Sandra and Jakob had been warned that the authorities had asked everyone in the small town of “El Paraiso” to pack an emergency kit. And that’s why the two asked the guests in their four small holiday homes for it on Sunday afternoon two weeks ago. You just don’t know whether the volcano won’t erupt for three years or maybe in a few minutes.
“Two minutes later, there is a terrific blow, right behind my courtyard, it felt as if I could spit over, when suddenly a huge fountain shot into the sky. The whole thing sounded like a rumble, rustling, grumbling, like when mother earth gives birth to a freight train at 350 km / h. And that doesn’t stop there.
Reinhard Spiegelhauer
ARD-Studio Madrid
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Jakob, Sandra and the guests jump into their cars and flee, everything stays behind. On the same day, the “Pueblo Munay”, as the two of them called their holiday village, disappears under the lava. Three days later they found shelter in a vacant German house.
When we found the property, it was easy to look each other in the eye and know: this is our home. Actually, I thought this is also the place where I will one day die. And we put everything into it. It was just our baby. The guests gave me so much back. Every single guest who has been with us up to now has written to me and is sympathetic and cannot believe it. ”
Escape from the island
The house is ten kilometers from the volcano, from here you can hear the eruptions. The lava comes out of the mountain only a few hundred meters away from the point where they made their lifelong dream come true with an inheritance, passion and a lot of personal work.
“It was a lifelong dream, that’s right, it’s destroyed, irretrievable. Rebuilding it here is out of the question for me. The island is too young and volcanic for me, I have now noticed that dramatic things can happen to you from one day to the next. ”
Jakob has a very strong feeling at this moment: He has to get off this island, he has to get down from La Palma. The next day they both take the ferry to Tenerife – a friend of Sandra’s has a house there where they can live for the time being. There, other journalists become aware of them, and interviews appear in El Pais and the Süddeutsche Zeitung. And they also stay in contact with ARD.
Back to the island?
Just two weeks after the terrible afternoon, Jakob and Sandra tell how they are doing now: “In this whole catastrophe we found a small refuge, super protected, so many people take care of us, they put boxes with clothes in our apartment , there were boxes of fresh vegetables. That is a willingness to help, that somehow gives a glimmer of hope in the heart. ”
Even a psychologist, friend of the friend, helps. A lawyer assists with the paperwork with the insurance company. After all, the two are insured. The question is how much it pays – and heart and soul cannot replace it anyway. But: The shock, despair and disappointment seem to slowly let go of Sandra and Jakob.
“We’d both like to go back to the island. My feeling, and what my heart tells me, is that the island means a lot to me, the people mean a lot to me. We would like to be there to rebuild this island.
Sandra and Jakob were well integrated in their community, got married there two years ago and have local friends. Maybe they will go back to La Palma, at least for a while, until it is clear how things will continue with the insurance company. Only then, they say, can they plan for the future.
La Palma: everything lost, but hope fights back
Reinhard Spiegelhauer, ARD Madrid, 2.10.2021 · 06:13
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