In Iceland, after the volcanic eruption, living in Grindavik becomes hypothetical

“We are tired of not knowing when we will be able to return home and if it will be safe,” one of its residents, Erla Osk Petursdottir, 43, told AFP, with a tired voice.

Iceland was awakened on Sunday morning by a volcanic eruption on the edge of the port city of Grindavik, its last inhabitants having been hastily evacuated a few hours earlier. At midday, the bright orange lava reduced three homes to ashes.

Volcanic activity has since calmed, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office, which explains that “magma accumulation” continued in the region. The city is therefore dangerous and will remain so for several more years.

"We don't know how long (the volcanic activity) will last, but it could take years, and it is possible that the lava will engulf the city," Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson, professor of geophysics at the University of Iceland.

On Tuesday, he was answering questions from 500 former Grindavik residents gathered in the capital Reykjavik to discuss the future of their city. Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir was present.

“They need to be supported,” notes the professor. “They have been displaced, cannot access their homes and are having financial difficulties.”

The city, which usually houses nearly 4.000 inhabitants, has seen its horizon suddenly darken in two months.

On November 11, it was evacuated for the first time after hundreds of earthquakes which cracked the city's buildings and caused huge cracks in the roads.

This seismic activity was triggered by the movement of magma under the earth's crust, a precursor to a volcanic eruption.

Strained finances

Residents were able to return to their homes briefly shortly after a first eruption on December 18, and permanently on December 23, but only a few dozen residents chose to resettle there, the others considering the situation too volatile.

These rare residents had to be urgently evacuated on Sunday night - when their worst fears came true.

Stunned by this destruction, many families find themselves financially strangled, forced to both repay a mortgage and pay rent, for those who are not staying with relatives.

Around 200 families are in urgent need of housing, the mayor of Grindavik also stressed during the meeting.

“We have to prepare for the long term,” says Erla Osk Petursdottir, who says that most of the residents of her hometown have resigned themselves to abandoning the place.

Their priority for all: to live in security and find a stable financial situation, she adds.

The residents present at the meeting in Reykjavik asked the government to acquire their homes in Grindavik, even if they themselves bought them back later, a prospect, for the moment, very hypothetical.

“We are stuck, it is up to the government and the State” to unblock the situation, argues one of them, Páll Thorbjörnsson, a 44-year-old real estate agent.

Some measures have already been taken. Temporary financial assistance has been provided to residents since November and the government has ordered the purchase of more than 200 homes for rehousing needs.

"Grief"

In the meantime, everyone must deal with uncertainty and sadness. “We are in the process of mourning the loss of our community, because we are all scattered and we just want to find ourselves again,” confides Ms. Petursdottir.

Páll Thorbjörnsson still envisions himself in this city, built on flows that occurred 800 years ago.

“We need to give ourselves some time,” the real estate agent said. “I can't do anything, there is the government, and Mother Nature, they are the ones” who will have the final say in the story.

The Grindavik eruption is the fifth in three years to hit the Reykjanes peninsula in southwest Iceland.

This large island in the North Atlantic, which is the largest and most active volcanic region in Europe, straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and has thirty-three active volcanic systems.