Madrid, November 19 (BNA) It is believed that the damage caused by the volcanic eruption so far on the Canary island of La Palma amounted to about 700 million euros (790 million dollars), according to official estimates.
“But we are still in the middle of (the disaster),” El Pais daily quoted Canary Prime Minister Angel Victor Torres as saying, adding that the damage was increasing by the minute.
Since the volcano began erupting on September 19, lava, at temperatures as high as 1,300 degrees Celsius, has destroyed more than 2,600 structures, according to a recent assessment by the European Earth Observing System Copernicus.
Accordingly, a layer of lava covered more than 1040 hectares of land. This area is equivalent to more than 1,450 football fields or about 1.4 percent of the island’s total land.
More than 7,000 of the 85,000 residents have been evacuated since the eruption began.
About 66 km of roads were damaged in the Cumbre Vieja mountain range in the south of the island and are currently impassable.
Bus driver Juan Jose Lorenzo told El Pais: “Before the volcanic eruption, it took ten minutes to get to work. Now it’s an hour and a half.”
The island’s council president, Mariano Hernandez Zapata, spoke of “the worst months in the island’s history.”
The activity of the volcano, which does not have a name, has decreased steadily in recent weeks and the lava flows have slowed down significantly.
However, according to experts, the end of volcanic activity is not in sight, at least not in the short term.
This is indicated by the numerous tremors that are still recorded at depths of more than 30 km below the lava volcano and fly ash.
NS