Rakel Lind, 42, a personal trainer from Grindavik, says she never thought this would “happen in a million years.”
“I was raised [knowing] that Reykjanes would crack from Iceland … but I never thought it was actually going to happen,” Lind told NBC News by phone on Monday.
Lind, her husband and their three youngest children spent the weekend watching live video footage of their hometown from the apartment in Reykjavik where they have lived since November, when the town’s 3,800 residents were first told to evacuate after the Svartsengi volcanic system awakened from almost 800 years of slumber.
The volcano first erupted on Dec. 18, but the lava flowed away from Grindavik and spared the town. Some residents had been allowed to return to their homes on Dec. 22, but were told to evacuate again on Jan. 13 ahead of a new eruption that began on Sunday morning. This time, the town is under threat.
Lind says her family already knows their house has been damaged by a new crack in the ground, but they miss their community most, describing it as a “wonderful town with wonderful people,” united by its successful basketball team.
“When something happens to another family, we stay together and help each other. Now we’re living in Reykjavik. I know nobody. I’m missing that,” she added.
Geophysicist Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson said Monday morning that the eruption had “decreased considerably” overnight, but that it was impossible to say when it would end.
Since then, emergency workers have been building defensive walls that have stopped much of the lava flow from the new eruption short of the town.
No one has been killed in the eruptions, but a workman is missing after reportedly falling into a crack opened by the volcano.
