Fatima has barely been able to turn on the television these days. The DANA of Valencia, which has left 219 dead so far, has returned the residents of La Palma to September 19, 2021, when the lava from the Cumbre Vieja volcano devastated houses, crops and animals. “I have felt sadness, hopelessness and, sometimes, anger, because some lives could have been saved,” says the spokesperson for the platform for those affected by the eruption. The Valencians’ questions are familiar to them. The fear of oblivion and doubts about how to rebuild their lives also assailed the palmeros during the emergency. In La Palma, some victims have been able to take small steps towards a new life. For others, such as those who continue to live in container homes, the response is insufficient. “If we are not at the forefront, they can forget us,” says Fátima.
The palm tree lived in Todoque, a town that disappeared under the lava flows. “My house, my brother’s and my mother’s were lost, because there were three houses attached to each other,” he remembers. Fátima had to give up the emergency housing they offered her, since she could not live in them with her dogs and, in addition, she had an alternative in the house of relatives in Tazacorte. He did receive the 60,000 euros that the State transferred to those who had seen their habitual residence destroyed and aid for belongings. For the spokesperson for the platform of those affected, housing is the main challenge that the island still faces. “There are many people who still cannot buy or get one,” he insists. Added to this is the lack of officially protected housing.
The numbers of the palm catastrophe put the affected people at 2,329. Specifically, residents in Los Llanos de Aridane (75.65%), El Paso (16.79%) and Tazacorte (7.56%), according to figures from the Canary Islands Institute of Statistics. The lava affected 1,676 buildings: 1,345 homes, 180 tool rooms, 75 industrial buildings, 44 leisure and hospitality buildings, 16 public use facilities such as schools and 16 other types of establishments. The landslides also destroyed communications, affecting 73.8 kilometers of roads.
Many people from the Todoque neighborhood have been living in the 80 containers located in Los Llanos de Aridane for about three years. The Minister of Public Works, Transport and Housing of the Government of the Canary Islands, Pablo Rodríguez, has recognized that these modules present “unworthy” conditions and assured that the regional Executive intends to transfer the tenants to 42 rehabilitated homes in Breña Baja. These houses were delivered by the Canarian public company Visocan to the Cabildo of La Palma on October 17.
Yomaira also lost her home in 2021. After several years of renting, she has managed to start over and is building a house in the municipality of El Paso. “With a small child I don’t see myself always living on rent,” he says. With his head in Valencia, he considers that La Palma has been lucky. “Here we are alive. Three years have passed and some of us have opportunities to move forward. He who lost people can no longer recover them,” he asserts. To help DANA victims, Yomaira will participate in a project to offer them psychological care. “I think I can empathize with what they are going through,” he says. On the contrary, on the island, he has encountered a lack of understanding on the part of some people who did not suffer the ravages of the volcano. “They have even told me: “but are you still doing that? But this is our reality now,” he insists.
Puerto Naos comes back to life
Over the years, seismicity has decreased on the island. The seismologist from the National Geographic Institute (IGN) Itahiza Domínguez explains that it had an increase in 2022 and has been gradually decreasing. “We have very few earthquakes a week,” he points out. Little by little, the flows are cooling, despite the fact that temperatures remain high in the area of the volcanic cone. In the towns of Puerto Naos and La Bombilla, the presence of gases is still a burden that prevents a complete recovery of normality.
Lali is a resident of Puerto Naos and has had to renovate her house. “I had to do it all over again because the kitchen was falling apart because of the gases,” he details. Although she is authorized to enter the house, her cardiovascular problems mean that her doctor does not allow her to live there yet. Meanwhile, he has already moved 14 times and now lives in the house of some German friends who go to the island on time. At the time of the interview, Lali is at home fixing some things. “I’m seeing people bathing on the beach and the truth is that they’re not making me want to leave,” he laughs.
Her daughter was able to return home just a week ago, after years of living from house to house. His last residence was a garage that they rented to him for 350 euros per month. For Lali, Puerto Naos is slowly being reborn thanks to the recent opening of the supermarket and several bars and businesses. These years, according to the palm tree, workers have been able to survive thanks to the ERTE. This tool, as explained to this newspaper by the Government delegate in the Canary Islands, Anselmo Pestana, remains in place until December. “There are about 70 people in ERTE, especially from the Puerto Naos area. The rest have been re-entering the labor market. At first there were about 2,500 people. This also gives us an idea of the positive evolution in the reconstruction of the island,” he values.
Lali’s place cannot open yet. “All of us who have a basement have a lot of CO2 accumulated there. They are doing studies to see where it comes from and how to channel it. These things are not as fast as one wants,” he acknowledges. However, he is happy to be able to relive episodes of his routine before the volcano. “The other day I went with my son to dinner somewhere here and you are in the atmosphere, with the neighbors… It seemed like nothing had happened,” he says.
Regarding the floods in Valencia, he assures that he feels them as his own. “Thank God we were lucky and no one died, except for a man from the gases,” he remembers. Lali is referring to the 72-year-old man who was found dead in the garage of his house, where he went as part of a convoy that entered the exclusion zone to clean roofs.
According to Lali, reconstruction has progressed rapidly in the recovery of roads and accesses, although “there is still a lot to do.” Several neighbors affirm that the recovery of LP-2 is still pending. “People wouldn’t have to make such a long journey, for example, to get to Fuencaliente,” he points out.
A school frozen in 2021
Another of the pending tasks for the Government of the Canary Islands is the recovery of the La Laguna public school, which was destroyed by one of the lava flows. For years, students have received their classes in a sociocultural center on loan, the rent of which costs the regional Executive nearly 14,000 euros per month. This Friday, an association of parents went to the regional Parliament to demand that the reconstruction of the center be processed through emergency means.
The Minister of Education, Poli Suárez, has responded that if he opted for this route, he would be prevaricating. According to the person responsible for the area, the technical and legal reports on the work conclude that it would be illegal to declare this work an emergency.
“We are talking about boys and girls who have been affected by the volcano. They have lost their homes, they have lost their parks, they have lost their streets,” said the group’s spokesperson, Nohely Fernández. The well-known “blue school” is still in the same place. “The neighbors pass by and see that while everything is being rebuilt, the center remains the same,” explains the school director Mónica Viña. Something that prevents them from moving forward. “There is no school, no pharmacy, no supermarket. The three elements that a neighborhood must have,” he adds.
Roads
The planning of the roads has caused tension among the victims. One of the most controversial works was known as the coastal highway. Although it has now been stopped, the route affected at least 70 families in the neighborhoods of La Marina, San Borondón and Las Cabezadas, in Tazacorte. All of them rose up against the administration to demand that “what little the volcano left behind” not be taken from them.
Elías, spokesperson for the Platform of People Affected by the Coastal Highway, was one of the visible faces of this fight, who managed to prevent the infrastructure from crossing his family’s farm. Like many other palm trees, his parents have always lived from agriculture and, specifically, bananas. The next battle is related to the price that the state government will pay to those expropriated for public works. Those affected demand that the state government compensate at least 44 euros per square meter of agricultural surface and respect the ownership of the plot. In this sense, Elías fears that they believe they are affected “first and second.”
The Government delegate in the Canary Islands explains that the expropriation price per square meter ranges from 10 or 20 euros to 70, depending on the circumstances. The highest amount will be paid to farms that were in operation and that were not affected by the volcano. Furthermore, according to Pestana, the 100 million euros that the State transfers to the Government of the Canary Islands each year can also be used to compensate for the loss of value of these infrastructures.
These 100 million euros, adds the delegate, can be used in any area related to reconstruction, such as compensation to the agricultural sector or payment of the real value of the first lost home. According to the data consulted by this newspaper, the Government of Spain has allocated 1,040 million euros to the island to date. Only 100 million of the General State Budgets remain to be transferred, which must arrive before December 31 of this year. For Elías, the spending is insufficient. “The real money that we need would mean for the State the cents that are on the floor of the car,” he exemplifies.
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