In La Palma, the Cumbre Vieja continues to discharge its lava flows on the Spanish island, but the situation seems to be improving this Sunday in the Canary Islands **. Twenty-four hours after being shut down due to ash from the volcano, La Palma airport has reopened even though flights remain suspended by airlines awaiting better flight conditions. **
“La Palma airport is operational again”, announced on Twitter the company managing Spanish airports (Aena), specifying that this reopening had been made possible by the “ash cleaning” work carried out during the night.
Flights can therefore resume, “with the prior agreement” of the air traffic control authorities, Aena added, nevertheless advising travelers to consult their airline in order to find out about their flight before going there.
On Sunday afternoon, flights to and from La Palma remained suspended, pending an improvement in the situation.
More than 6,000 evacuations
The authorities also allowed some evacuated residents on Sunday to recover their personal belongings and on Saturday nearly 200 were even able to return home.
For the past week, the anger of Cumbre Vieja has already forced more than 6,000 of the 85,000 inhabitants of the island to leave their homes.
This eruption, the first since 1971 on the island, has not yet claimed victims, according to the authorities, but it has caused immense damage.
“The ash fall affects the municipalities close” to the volcano but also other municipalities which are located “on the east side of the island”, detailed Sunday at a press conference the technical director of the Volcanic Emergency Plan of the Canaries (Pevolca), Miguel Ángel Morcuende. “All this does not affect the air quality in the inhabited area of the island. The air quality is always good,” he nevertheless insisted.
Ravaged plantations
According to the latest data from the European geospatial measurement system Copernicus, lava destroyed 461 buildings from the eruption – or 41 more buildings in 24 hours. The ashes, meanwhile, affected at this stage 1,314 hectares of land, according to Copernicus, covering more than 200 hectares, of banana plantations, the main economic activity of the fifth island of the Canaries.
Reference-feedproxy.google.com