The La Palma volcano increases its threat as the hours go by. The authorities have decided on the morning of this Thursday the evacuation of a new neighborhood of Los Llanos de Aridane due to the advance of the laundry and its proximity to the boundary zone of the perimeter already evacuated. This evacuation takes place just 12 hours after the emptying of another area bordering the La Laguna neighborhood was decreed, which suffered the same fate on October 12. The measure affects between 250 and 300 residents, according to sources from the Canary Islands Government. To these people we must add another 15 affected on Wednesday night. In just two days, up to 1,100 residents have been evacuated, bringing the total number to over 7,000.
The area evacuated on Thursday morning represents an expansion to the west compared to those that were intervened since last Tuesday in the La Laguna neighborhood. It encompasses from the center of this town to the border with the neighboring municipality of Tazacorte. The people affected by this new measure have until 5:00 p.m. (local time) to leave their homes, with their belongings and pets, and go to the meeting point located in the Campo de Lucha Camino León in the town.
The evacuees, as is usual, have been asked to bring their documentation and that of the house, medicines for daily use, mobile phone, charger, flashlight and clothing for several days. From there, predictably, they will be transferred to the El Fuerte military barracks, on the outskirts of Santa Cruz de La Palma. Before leaving their homes, they have also been advised to lower blinds and close windows, exterior doors, and water, gas and electricity supplies.
The volcanic eruption has generated at least three main lava flows. The first, which according to the Volcanic Emergency Plan of the Canary Islands (Pevolca) “has lost steam and has no lava contribution”, is the one that has surrounded the Todoque Mountain to the north and south and has reached the sea creating a delta magma (approximately 34 hectares). There is another stream that descends with power and that runs parallel to the main one, “causing significant damage in the cultivation and residential areas”, which is not a concern from the safety point of view because it runs through a previously evacuated area. Currently, it is located about 200 meters from the sea. If it arrives, it could create a new strip.
The third wash is the northwest arm, which has crossed the small industrial area of Callejón de La Gata this weekend and which led to the evacuation of between 700 and 800 residents on Wednesday in anticipation that it could reach inhabited areas. This was the penultimate eviction order since the La Palma volcano eruption on September 19. “It has accelerated in the afternoon,” said Civil Protection sources this Wednesday. The lava flows have already destroyed 1,548 buildings on the Canary Island, according to the update published this Thursday by Copernicus, the European Union’s Earth observation program. The number of hectares of land covered by magma amounts to 680.4.
The island has registered this morning more than fifty earthquakes, one of them of magnitude 4.5, that is, the largest since the volcanic eruption began on the island. The earthquake, as reported by the National Geographic Institute, has had a depth of 37 kilometers and occurred around 1.30 in the morning, reports Javier Salas.