Iceland residents describe ‘apocalyptic’ scenes as they flee volcano risk | EUROtoday

Residents from a small Icelandic city beneath risk from a volcanic eruption have described their ‘apocalyptic’ existence as they concern for his or her future.

Last Friday, hundreds of Grindavik residents had been ordered to depart because the city was rocked by lots of of earthquakes. The small fishing city is 34 miles from Reykjavík and is residence to the well-known vacationer attraction the Blue Lagoon.

Many have been unable to return to the ‘danger zone’ to gather their belongings, as earthquakes proceed to strike the city.

Grindavik resident Andrea Ævarsdóttir, 46, instructed The Independent: “Everything just seems so unreal, I feel like I’m in a dystopian movie. I’m just waiting to wake up from this nightmare.”

The mom was preparing to enter Reykjavík to have a good time her son Björgvin Hrafnar’s sixteenth birthday when their home began to shake on Friday.

“Some of them [the earthquakes] were like a big truck had driven past your house, the bigger ones were like the same truck had hit your house,” she stated. “Everything was shaking so bad, the floors were going up and down.”

The household deliberate on staying in a single day at her mom’s residence, however they had been alerted en route that they had been going to be evacuated so solely had their in a single day baggage and had left their cats behind.

Ms Ævarsdóttir made the tough name to return residence to get her cats and medicine however was stopped at a checkpoint on the primary highway Grindavikurvegur. Fortunately, the mom was granted particular permission to return to gather her tablets and three pets earlier than heading again.

Like different Grindavik residents, Ms Ævarsdóttir was allowed to return residence on Monday to gather her belongings however needed to obey a 10-minute time restrict.

She is now dwelling together with her 16 and 14-year-old sons in her mom’s cramped one-bedroom condo.

Describing the surreality and unhappiness of leaving her residence, she stated: “I was crying non-stop when we got to Grindavik, we were allowed to drive into town.

“We had ten minutes, you don’t have the mental capacity to think, I was in panic mode, I just grabbed what I could see.

“I grabbed all of the clothes I could think of but I left one of the packed suitcases behind.”

The youngsters don’t but must return to high school as they get better from the shock, however it stays unclear the place they’ll go, defined the mom.

The distraught mom works because the director of an area and public college library and defined the households ‘entire existence is in Grindavik’.

Her residence of eight and a half years remains to be standing however some have fallen to the bottom because of the robust quakes.

“It was really hard to see the state of some of the houses and streets. My house seemed fine but this area is really unstable.”

Now the mom has to resolve whether or not she needs to ultimately transfer again to the city, if it isn’t destroyed by the volcanic eruption.

She says residents have accustomed to dwelling with earthquakes, however dwelling on an energetic volcano fissure is a unique story.

“I love living in Grindavik, it’s a really nice close-knit town but now comes the fear if we get to move back, do we want to move back?” she stated. “This area is really unstable. Do we want to experience evacuation again?”

Siggeir Ævarsson, 38, is one other Grindavik resident who doesn’t know if he’ll be capable to return to his household residence.

The instructor had deliberate to fulfill his brother and sister-in-law however after the earthquakes caught on Friday his brother-in-law urged them to come back sooner.

“I’ve seen a lot Earthquakes but this is something I’ve never felt before.

“The sources were 2km away from our house. Things were falling down from shelves, I was standing in the kitchen I thought, can I even put pans on the stove.”

Alongside his spouse and youngest daughter, Þórgunnur Júlía,10, they grabbed their two cats and left.

The 38-year-old says he and his spouse, Soffía Sveinsdóttir, 39, have been lucky as his sister-in-law has a spacious home with spare rooms.

Mr Ævarsson was allowed to return on Sunday and was capable of fill two automobiles with their objects.

“It was like going into an apocalyptic movie. The town was empty and lifeless. There were cracks everywhere.

“It was very weird to walk into the house, it looked exactly the same the lights were still on.

“Other houses are cracking in two, my house was fine, but a few metres up the road they are ruined.”

As a born-and-bred Grindavikian, the daddy–of-two is attempting to stay optimistic and “not think about lava flowing through his home”.

“I’m trying to think of this as extension of a holiday, I’m watching movies, drinking beer and trying to stay positive and keep my mind from things I have no control over.”