Watch: Volcanic eruptions turn community into ghost town

It’s incredibly deep. It is incredibly deep. And there were huge cracks in that area, which they’ve filled up already. And this is actually the same crack that goes through town as well, all the way to the crater area, basically. It’s actually perilously close to your house. Just there it is. Yeah, This volcanic eruption, just a few miles from the small town of Grindavik, is the latest in a series of volcanic events to rock the Rakanis Peninsula in southwest Iceland. Having laid dormant for 8 centuries, the volcanic system here is reawakening, marking a new period of activity that could last 10s or even hundreds of years. For Grindavik’s 3600 residents, that means dealing with lava flows, powerful earthquakes, destructive fishes and evacuations. Clara Haldor Zottia and her family evacuated in November last year, and like many, she doesn’t plan to return at the at the. Yeah, we would, yeah. I was asking if he’s moved back, but he said no, no, no, I’m not going to risk it. Is he just visiting then? Yeah, picking up some stuff. And so no one is really living in this part? No. Maybe there are about 30 people already living in Grinderwick. Yeah, but yeah, the rest of us aren’t that keen on that. And you know, nobody knows what Mother Nature is going to do next. So did lots of houses around here get damaged when this happened? I guess the ground must have moved quite a lot. It did, actually. The brown house, it’s completely ruined. And the black house here is sinking more and more. And the grey house is my horse stable. And we used to keep our horses on this pasture. There are no pictures on the walls now, so it feels kind of like a house with no soul. For me. And most of the people in Glendale having the eruption since 2021 and the following years so close by, it was fascinating. The earthquakes, of course, were the downside of it, but then it happened so close to town, and that’s a totally different story. And can you tell me a bit about what the community was like here? It’s a community of people who more or less know each other. And you would go to the grocery store and have a talk. And it was like a close community. Now we’re spread it through various towns. And this the feeling that we miss the most. I think your kids, did they want to stay here or they kind of still want to stay here? Yeah, it’s harder for them. Definitely. This is where they grew up, and then they don’t know anything else. And now we’re cooped up in a small apt. I think Islanders are quite tough. I mean, we live in a harsh nature and we’ve always known that this was an active area, but nothing has happened for 800 years. And the last time that there was an eruption so close to towns was in the Western islands 51 years ago, lasted for a few months, but then it was over and then you could start rebuilding the community. But here we don’t know when it’s going to end.