16 November 2023 , 20:09
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Terrified residents living in the shadow of a volcanic eruption fear an Icelandic town could end up “frozen in time like Pompeii”.
At least 4,000 people were forced to flee their homes in the dead of night - after the fishing town of Grindavik was split in two. More than 800 earthquakes and thousands of tremors have been recorded on the island since the evacuation last Friday.
A State of Emergency has now been declared amid fears there could be a catastrophic volcanic explosion any day. A giant bulldozer, the country’s biggest, has arrived to build a massive 3.5 mile ditch and earth mounds to help stop the lava if it comes.
Mirror's Lucy in Iceland (Andy Commins / Daily Mirror)While other workers are facing a race-against-time to build a wall around the Svartsengi power plant, which is in the southwest of the island known as the Reykjanes Peninsula. At the police checkpoints set up around the dangerous ‘red zone’, there is an ominous smell of sulphur dioxide.
This volcanic gas proves the magma is close to the surface with some experts claiming this lava in one minutes could fill two Olympic sized swimming pools. On Thursday officers stopped disappointed residents from entering the ‘red zone’ to collect belongings.
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The day before they had been allowed in briefly to collect their pets and medication. But only emergency workers were allowed in 24 hours later after raised levels of this volcanic gas were detected in the stricken town. The Icelandic Met Office warned: “Due to the release of tension, it is likely that the magma will have an easy way to the surface.”
Kristjan Rargrarssan, a search and rescue worker holding the list of who is allowed to go into the zone, told us: “It is the red zone, the area with the most earthquakes, the most cracks and the most volcanic activity.” At the other size of the exclusion zone, surrounded by a barren black volcanic landscape, sheep farmers queued up in the cars with empty wagons but were also turned away.
Lava flows from an eruption in 2021 (AFP via Getty Images)The red zone is not the only area plagued by earthquakes - some as high as 5.3. Fifteen minutes away, British Expat Anne Sigurdsson, 66, said it all feels “too damn close for comfort” as her house was left shaking. She moved to Iceland from Carlisle seven years ago with her husband Siggi,
63, and said: “People are apprehensive and everyone feels so much for those evacuated as we know it could so easily be us too. This island could be ripped apart. We fear Grindavik could end up frozen in time like Pompeii. On Friday afternoon it was like shake, rattle and roll, here.
“You hear it before you feel it, it’s like thunder in the ground. Everything was shaking and the house was creaking. It was like being inside one of those snow globes and being shaken around.” She said they are concerned about the infrastructure damaging the Peninsula and they could also end up with no hot water.
"If it goes where they say it is going to, the lava could go to the power plant and the water plant. Already house prices have taken a hit so many people could end up with nothing. Nobody is going to want to live here.” The world famous Blue Lagoon resort is at the centre of the drama and has been closed temporarily.
Anne Sigurdsson (Andy Commins / Daily Mirror)
Theodor Vilberisson (Andy Commins / Daily Mirror)Even the nearby international airport at Keflavik has been hit by earthquakes. But workers there told how they take it in their stride, with one telling us: “We want it to hurry up and erupt so we can get some sleep.” Margret Benediktsdottir, 64, who helps run the family fisheries business employing 100 staff, told how she feared the earth was going to open up under her house.
“We started having tremors all week long and then they started to happen every 30 seconds. There was not a minute between them. It felt like my house was jumping around, it was terrifying. I could hear things breaking. I felt like it was underneath me. I was worried the earth was going to open up. It was surreal, everyone’s in shock.”
She explained how her husband arrived home on Friday in the middle of the quakes and they decided to evacuate immediately after calling their children to warn them to “get out” of town. She said the crack which has appeared in the town goes down a few metres.
And their fishing headquarters was damaged by the tremors, with cracks appearing on the factory floors and walls. “You can see into the business through a crack in the wall,” she described. Her company has set up a Facebook page to keep them informed. But she told how she is relieved everyone is now away from the danger.
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Huge crater in road (Vegagerðin)
Wrecked Icelandic highway (Vegagerðin)“If it erupts in the middle of the town, it could all be gone. People are in shock and I’m devastated for everyone,” she said. “Imagine if you have to evacuate at midnight and you don’t know if you will ever be coming back! I’m not sure if I want to go back. It was scary.
“It is devastating and such a beautiful place to live in and bring up your children. I’ve lived here 44 years and it’s the first time I’ve experienced anything like this. Now there is a big question mark over us all. “ Her son-in-law, Hilmir Jonsson, 46, who has an electric car charging business in Grindavik with his wife Svanhildur Hermannsdottir, Margrets daughter, told how they tried to make it a “game “for their five youngest children aged 8, 7, 4, 2 and 1.
“Sometimes the earthquakes were quiet and sometimes they were crazy. It came in waves. But you could hear the earth rumble beneath us. So we tried to make a little game out of it for the kids so they didn’t feel any fear. We would celebrate like there had been a goal when there was a big one, cheering and clapping. We tried to build that atmosphere for them.
“After an earthquake had passed we asked them to walk the hallway and pretend they were on a plane because that is how it felt like. The house was trembling and kind of floating. The loudness during a quake was the thing that was the most upsetting for them.
“Of course inside we knew it was an unknown situation, the lava was basically under our feet but there was no news on that until the evacuation. The whole day (last Friday) was extreme but it had calmed down a bit in the evening. During the evacuation we didn’t have the luxury to pack up for so many people, we had the kids to think about. “
“The evacuation came very late, just before midnight and we drove off to grandma’s Margret’s summerhouse, which they love spending time at” One of those trying to get to his sheep a few miles away from the town was farmer Theodor Vilbergsson, 76, waiting with his employees at one of the cordons.
“It’s been very scary. The earth was like the sea before we were evacuated,” he said, explaining how his parents met in Brighton in the UK during the war. The road is split in half near the church, with one side having dropped one metre. My sheep will be okay as they have grass and water but my wife is now too scared to go back to Grindavik.”