La Palma After The 2021 Eruption

LA PALMA after the volcanic eruption in 2021. This sight was terribly depressing. Already knowing the effects of this eruption, I didn't expect it would be different when I visited this place. So far, I have had the opportunity to see several eruptions and their effects. However, this is the first time I have seen such enormous destruction of human property in real life. Expressions of deep sympathy for the people affected by this tragedy. I try to imagine what these people feel, looking at the thick lava shell, knowing that their houses are underneath it. When the eruption began on Sunday afternoon, September 19, 2021, and the authorities announced the evacuation, people often had only a few minutes to collect their life's belongings, with no guarantee that they would ever return. As it later turned out, many of them had nothing left to do. It can be seen that some of these houses miraculously survived. The lava almost touched them, entered the yard and surrounded them. People returned to them, but instead of the beautiful greenery and banana fields that surrounded them, they now saw fields of solidified lava on which nothing grows. In this part of the island, work is still visible to unblock lava-flooded roads and build new ones. The eruption of the most active volcano in the Canary Islands, Cumbre Vieja (Tajogaite) on La Palma, lasted exactly 85 days and 18 hours. Approximately 7,000 residents were evacuated. The only fatality from this eruption was a 72-year-old man, whose roof collapsed under him while trying to clear it of the layer of ash. The flowing lava consumed approximately 3,000 buildings (houses, schools, churches, supermarkets), 370 hectares of agricultural fields and plantations of banana trees, avocados and vineyards. In some places, the height of the solidified lava is up to 70 m. According to experts, these are the largest losses in the history of Spain, estimated at approximately one billion dollars.