Reykjavík Grapevine - 26.09.2014, Síða 35

35The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 15 — 2014 VOLCANO
An hour later, we finally pull up to an
outpost at the artificial border cross-
ing into the closed-off eruption area.
Kormákur tells us to mind the doors, as
the wind is blowing hard now. Inside a
shipping container that has been con-
verted into makeshift living quarters,
Gísli Sigmarsson and Hrund Snor-
radóttir are wrapping up their dinner.
As members of Iceland’s rescue team,
the couple volunteered to monitor the
area for the next 24 hours. Only scien-
tists and the media, provided they have
a permit and an Icelandic guide with
them, are allowed to pass.
The four of us—Grapevine photog-
rapher Matthew Eisman, our guides
and I—have travelled nearly 600 kilome-
tres to catch a glimpse of Holuhraun,
which is now the biggest lava eruption
in Iceland since the 19th century. At the
time of writing, it has spewed enough
lava to fill every building in Iceland, or
more than 8,000 Hallgrímskirkjas, if you
prefer.
We are filled anticipation, a mild
sense of dread and a lingering feel-
ing of disappointment—by the time we
made it to Akureyri a few hours earlier,
the eruption area had been completely
closed off due to poisonous gases. We
might not get to see anything. Hoping
the closure was going to be temporary,
we decided to keep going, but it was
now fairly clear that our laboriously ob-
tained permits would be of no use to us,
at least not tonight. Our plans had been
foiled by gas and southerly winds.
A life or death matter
“It’s unbearable in there,” Hrund tells
us from inside the shipping container
while Gísli communicates over the radio
with the scientists who are on their way
out. “Given the situation today—how
much pollution there is and the fact
that all of the scientists are leaving—I
think it’s pretty unlikely that you’ll get
in, but if there’s less pollution tomor-
row, it’s a possibility.”
Icelanders know all too well that
eruptive gases—carbon dioxide and
sulphur dioxide—can be fatal. When
Laki erupted in 1783-4, the gases had
a devastating effect on the country,
reportedly killing 60% of the livestock
and almost 25% of the population. The
“Laki Haze,” as it has been referred to,
reached mainland Europe and some
say contributed to the great famine
there, which in turn led to the French
Revolution.
Poisonous gas was also respon-
sible for the only casualty of the Hei-
maey eruption in 1973. “That’s a sad
story,” says Gísli, who we learn, was a
refugee of that eruption. “I was always
told growing up that nobody died in the
eruption except well, one drunk or drug
addict from Reykjavík who was trying
to steal drugs from the pharmacy. But
this man, who had been at sea, had ac-
tually lived in the Westman Islands for
a few years, and he had gone into the
pharmacy to get painkillers after hav-
ing been in an accident. It’s sad that all
these years we’ve had the wrong idea
about this man. It was like he didn’t
matter.”
Gísli was one of the 5,200 people
evacuated to the mainland after the
unexpected eruption began just after
midnight in the middle of the winter.
His partner Hrund recounts: “When
my mother-in-law was on the boat with
Gísli, a two-years-old boy at the time—
she didn’t know it would turn out so
well. You can imagine, if you put your-
self in that position, the island is on fire
and molten rock is rain-
ing over, and you don’t
know what’s going to
happen.”
Although the evac-
uation was successful,
and the Westman Is-
landers even managed
to save their harbour
from being closed off
by the new lava, the
eruption buried half
the town in ash and
left it uninhabitable
for six months. It was
a devastating event
for those who lost their
homes, and a great
number of people nev-
er returned.
The gas, of course, lingered long after
the eruption. “It sits in all of the recesses,
and depletes the oxygen. When people
drove into lower-lying areas, the car
sometimes just stopped working,” Gísli
recalls, at once noting the same danger
in the Holuhraun area. “Everyone who
goes into the eruption area must have a
gas mask, and people are advised to stay
within five minutes of their car so that
they can quickly drive
away if gases rise to
dangerous levels.”
He emphasises
that the area is not
being closed just
for the fun of it, and
brings up the three
Icelanders who were
caught in the area
without a permit not
once, but twice. The
second time, they had
gone disguised as ge-
ologists, wearing hel-
mets and yellow vests.
They even had a sign
made for their truck
that read, “Íslenskar
jarðrannsóknir” (“Ice-
landic Earth Studies”). “There’s a reason
for closing the area, and people have to
respect that,” Gísli says. “I can feel the
gas even just walking around here, and
the wind is not even coming directly at
us—it irritates your throat, you feel it on
your lips.”
“Everyone who goes
into the eruption area
must have a gas mask,
and people are ad-
vised to stay within
five minutes of their
car so that they can
quickly drive away if
gas levels rise to dan-
gerous levels.”
Continues on P.36
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