I’m too depressed to write much.
In the early hours yesterday, Friday October 1st, another two vents opened up and they’re spewing lava. It’s got very noisy again. We haven’t had any more nasty ash on our side of the island, and the airport is mostly open, but I’m not so sure about the other side.
880 buildings have been destroyed and 105 damaged.
28 km of roads destroyed. It won’t be simple to rebuild them, even when the lava has cooled down.
The delta of new lava is now 30 Hectares / 70 acres. No, the banana growers can’t just move there – it’s bare rock. The 1949 lava flow is still mostly bare rock with lichens.
An irrigation channel has been destroyed. That’s another lot of the banana crop lost.
Two friends have lost their houses. One couple bought a fixer-upper and spent a decade or so making it beautiful. They managed to get most of their stuff out, but obviously not the garden, or the BBQ area, or the hand-built wooden ceiling. The other friend lost a house that had been in her partner’s family for generations.
So yes, I’m depressed.