Revive between ash

After the winter mist, the volcano appears asleep although with the drizzle he still smokes the lava, which came out of eleven mouths for three months and opened like a hand of six fingers.He swept everything, the stony and paradise, and stopped when Tazacorte, La Laguna, El Paso and Los Llanos de Aridane.Thousands of residents of the West of the Canarian Island were evacuated and are still out of their homes, waiting to return to the quiet daily life before the eruption.A few days ago, the authorities allowed the return to the inhabitants of Las Martelas, a neighborhood that now serves as a border to the exclusion zone.

In one of his last houses, Felipe Acosta Lorenzo is cleaning."You have to go back to life," he reflects."Follow.With my son, my daughter -in -law and my granddaughter.There are many people worse than me ».They dislodged in October and found a "rental house" where to live.As a bananas farm has, they allowed him to water."It is a relief that the house is still standing," admits this man who brings together the black spot, omnipresent on the island, of "sand" of the volcano with his big hands or running away with water.«I was born here 66 years ago.This house was built by my parents.I remember seeing it with nothing around, just stone, the road was dirt.There was light but not water ».Your family does not yet come to sleep.You have to fix «problems and breakdowns.We will return when you can ».

At the feet of the volcano, which dominates its horizon, Acosta Lorenzo Pie.It will then take them to the clean point, although it is surrounded by mounds of debris that have accumulated in a few days."There is uncertainty for everything," says Acosta Lorenzo, who is concerned about how the banana will be given next year, because the "children" of the plant, which are the future harvest, have broken down and fear "the sablazo that weYou will give the Treasury with taxes for aid ».

Another luck touched José Luis Rodríguez Arias.He lived in everything.His Terrera house, as they call these low homes with garden and patio, is now under twenty meters of solid lava.He kept hope until he saw how the church crumbled."Everything was lost,".It was one of the first evicted.On September 19, when the earth broke.He and his brothers came out "with two mute clothes and personal documents".He lost, in addition to the house that made "my grandmother spending hunger", a car and a garden.His was one of 1.345 homes that swallowed the lava, according to official data.More than 6.000 structures suffered damage, half irreparable.There are 7.200 people in a state of necessity, for a total population only twelve times greater.

Most evacuees are still housed in hotels paid by the local government.There those who lost their home come together, who in addition to the house also ran out of work, or those who lived for rent and left all their belongings.Also those who have not lost the house but still do not know if it is habitable, waiting for structural damage to be evaluated.

The Rodríguez Arias brothers have been among the first beneficiaries of a couple of two -bedroom housing and a bathroom, amortized the first years and with the option to buy.«Okay, but having what was a terrace house to have this, which is a floor...», Rodríguez Arias laments on the property located in Tazacorte, another neighborhood in the same area.«I don't see myself here all my life.I have been losing ».

For public aid, "the priority is those that only had a first and unique housing," says Sergio Matos, Social Action Coordinator of the Office of Attention to those affected by the Volcano, an agency that distributes an "initial package of 106 homes"destined for that first group of 1.300 people, according to their calculations, although "we are still registering".

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Logistics is complicated in front of an "insufficient housing park", rejection of floors and lack of documentation in order.For example, "people without a cadastre", who "were still processing their home" or that "was not registered".However, "there is little picaresca," says Matos, who opened this care office on September 28.«I was only, with the keys and a pen.Now we are more than 50 people, we had to start by designing the applications to collect the data that came in a situation as special as this catastrophe.You cannot compare with any, because there is not even the land ».

The danger of the volcano continues, although no longer ruins.In these days the year ends, its deadly effect is invisible."There are gases that are toxic, suffocating, such as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide," warns Montserrat Román, director of the advanced command post, located in Los Llanos, near the lava trail.«It does not smell, it is not seen, it does not feel and they are lethal atmospheres in seconds.At first we had other types of gases, with sulfur dioxide concentrations, but now the main problem is on the coast and we think they are underground leaks.Gas looks for where to leave ».

Before dawn, those responsible for the emergency brigades analyze what happened during the night.Earlier this week, the decision was not made not to allow access to irrigators or banana packaging the bulb and Puerto Naos.Once the decrease in the levels of these gases was verified, they were allowed to work, with the prohibition of accessing closed spaces.

"Although the eruption is terminated in the next few days, its consequences are maintained on the ground," Román alert, who also dealt with the emergency of the Ramblas attack and Germanwings plane crash that took off Barcelona from Barcelona."You have to determine which areas are safe to progressively end the evacuations that were ordered at the time".

Before allowing the residents to return to their homes, the authorities must observe the wash tubes, which maintain their high temperatures and could collapse and cause landslides;locate the gases that escape in the affected coastal area and those that release the fajanas;Verify the state of the houses, with cracks open by earthquakes;undertake works to replace basic services, such as water and light.For this roadmap there is no calendar: how to know how long the toxic gases will come out.

The families that have lost everything bet on rebuilding on the lava and having the same boundaries they occupied before the outbreak."The dream of mine is that the land can be recovered and the one who wants to build again, to rebuild or make farms or a straw or a vineyard," says Rodríguez Arias, who is dedicated to repairs to the banana trees of the area and isLow due to a back injury.«That is not protected zone.I am not afraid of the volcano ».

In this new phase, that ash that covers everything is the least of the evils."The return of people to their homes will not be immediate," Román warns.«In addition, the neighbors who return to the safe areas do not find it habitable of first.It is a process and can spend a lot of time ».

Indeed, the crisis continues."The reconstruction will take two or three years," says Matos.«It is logical that those affected would like it to be faster, but public money is used and you have to do it well.The aid is coming and times are being fulfilled ».

Neighbor of the evacuated Puerto Naos, "a ghost town" surrounded by Malpaílast days of existence."I had lived up to three volcanoes".She now takes care of her mother -in.

The first time was "bleak.All black, ash mountains.Horrifying".What took the volcano is "only 10% of the island, which is where I am.Everyone says that until June or July there will be no return.There is no road, light, water, supermarket, pharmacy.When are we going to work again?Meanwhile, I still pay the autonomous fee, ”said Álvarez, 55 and dedicated to the hospitality sector.His house «was under the cemetery and was saved, like the whole stain from below.I want him to renate, much better than before, ”he says, forcing optimism for the future.Then, draw the present with a single phrase: "Every day, I cry".