Residents of Grindavík, Iceland, have been forced to leave their homes due to ongoing volcanic activity. Some are afraid to return, while others are determined to go back.
Andrea Ævarsdóttir, the director of Grindavík library, has moved with her two teenage sons and three cats to her mother’s one-bedroom apartment. Grindavík ’s 3,800 inhabitants left behind homes, jobs and schools. Some say fear will stop them ever going back, but others are determined to return. Sólný Pálsdóttir tries in vain to emulate the sound that emerged from under her home before she fled it on Friday night.
“It was like a big animal coming, it was like a lion – and of course we saw the Earth moving,” says the teacher and photographer. Having lived through weeks of nightly earthquakes, and three years of volcanic eruptions, Sólný had been planning to cook a quiet dinner for her son and heavily pregnant daughter-in-law. But when the 53-year-old heard that sound, she knew it was time to leave. “I had a bad feeling,” says Sólný. “I was born in Grindavík and I am used to earthquakes since I was little but this was something else
Grindavík Iceland Volcanic Activity Earthquakes Evacuation