La isla resiliente
September 19, 2021: The Eruption
3:10 PM, La Palma Island. A Canary Islands television channel broadcast the eruption of the La Palma volcano live, capturing the first few seconds of the eruption and surprising residents of the El Paraíso area, the closest to the lava flow that would later become the volcano.
Protest in Los Llanos de Aridane. La Palma. 2021
These were the first images that would go viral and occupy hours of airtime, without anyone knowing the tragedy that was about to unfold for hundreds of families. Ambulances picked up sick or disabled people, Civil Guard officers with megaphones urged people to evacuate their homes immediately, and they patrolled the streets to evacuate the area, house by house. The afternoon siesta was abruptly shattered. When it was finally possible to enter some places with permits to collect essential items, the scenes inside the homes were of a desperate flight, with no thought given to what was being left behind. The lava flowed down the valley with such speed, due to the steep slope, that it reached the first houses and buried them. The neighbors wept as they watched the images on television.
Those who could put their animals in vans—cats, dogs, everything they could fit in cars—and ran down the street or drove to the main road. The dogs barked incessantly.
The eruption caught people at lunch or during their afternoon nap; coffee and dishes remained on the tables, and clothes drying in the sun began to be covered with a thin layer of ash.
The news spread like wildfire; it was already the trending topic on social media. Television networks interrupted their broadcasts of flagship programs, and mobile phones transmitted live on social networks the initial fury of a phenomenon that hadn't been seen for many years…
A series of incompetent actions during what was a state of emergency has left families in extreme poverty, homeless and without assistance, a situation that persists to this day. Many questions and unresolved issues remain unanswered, and the traumatic situation caused by the volcanic eruption could unfortunately be repeated at any moment.
A book has been published under the title The Resilient Island. (Out of stock).
