To deal with the evacuees of Grindavik, the Icelandic city the place lava flowed into some houses after a volcanic eruption final week, a former prime minister proposed constructing a brand new city from scratch. One politician stated Airbnbs on the island needs to be restricted to make room for residents. And a radio presenter advised turning away asylum seekers to focus assets on serving to ‘refugees’ from Grindavik.
“Evacuating 1 p.c of the nation,” stated Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir, “is a serious problem.”
Grindavik, a fishing village in southwestern Iceland, remains to be threatened by volcanic eruptions and consultants take into account it uninhabitable for the foreseeable future. Earlier than the eruption, about 3,700 folks lived there, a big quantity for Iceland, whose whole inhabitants is simply 400,000. Authorities are doing their utmost to accommodate residents and restrict their monetary losses, and the difficulty dominates the nationwide debate.
Residents of the town stay in resort rooms, in summer season homes, in momentary rental residences or are hosted by relations.
Thorgerdur Eliasdottir, 67, a restaurant employee from Grindavik, stated she and her cat had moved 5 instances for the reason that metropolis was first evacuated in November. She stated she plans to maneuver once more quickly, to an house she will be able to hire for 3 months.
“I’ve an outdated wood home in Grindavik,” she stated in a phone interview. “I want the federal government would simply put it on a automotive and drive it to a protected location.”
Iceland’s housing market was already saturated attributable to a mix of inhabitants progress and tourism, which has picked up once more after the pandemic. Based on the Icelandic Vacationer Board, greater than 8,000 bedrooms within the capital area had been out there for short-term leases as of final summer season.
For these desirous about buying a house, the rate of interest is over 9 p.c.
Fannar Jonasson, the mayor of Grindavik, whose workplace has moved to the town corridor within the capital Reykjavik, stated the shortage of housing meant residents had been now unfold out throughout the nation, with many struggling to search out long-term housing to search out.
“We are actually engaged on a long-term resolution on all fronts,” he stated in a phone interview on Thursday.
Grindavik’s inhabitants has grown quickly lately attributable to an inflow of individuals from Reykjavik, which is simply about 30 miles away.
After the eruption, banks agreed to freeze mortgage funds for residents, however residents stated they might not get insurance coverage advantages until their houses had been instantly destroyed.
Bryndis Gunnlaugsdottir, a lawyer and former resident of Grindavik, stated that when she noticed her neighbor’s home coated in lava however her personal home nonetheless standing, “it was the worst second for the reason that evacuation.”
She stated Tuesday at a packed city hall-style assembly with politicians and scientists, including that if her home had been to go up in flames, her monetary stress would ease.
“The noose round my neck would disappear,” she stated, as a result of her dwelling would then be coated by insurance coverage.
The federal government now partially subsidizes the hire of Grindavik’s former residents, however lawmakers are discussing a invoice that may permit the federal government to purchase all the homes there after which return them to their former house owners as soon as the world was deemed protected once more.
Vilhjalmur Arnason, a lawmaker and resident of Grindavik, stated this could be the one method to meet the calls for of locals.
“Now let’s construct a brand new home,” he stated in a phone interview as he left a gathering with the federal government’s finance committee in Reykjavik. “So we will discover a new level to start out from.”
Volcanologists stated that, in keeping with predictions, volcanic exercise on the southwestern Reykjanes Peninsula, the place Grindavik is positioned, would final 10 to twenty years. Latest earthquakes have additionally brought on cracks within the metropolis, and final month a building employee fell right into a crater believed to be 40 meters deep. He’s believed to be useless. The eruption additionally broke the primary pipe that carried sizzling water to Grindavik’s houses.
“The grounds for folks to inhabit Grindavik aren’t in sight,” stated Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson, who advises the civil safety company.
However Mr Gudmundsson added that volcanic exercise might transfer away from the craters threatening Grindavik, making the town protected once more.
Gisli Palsson, an anthropology professor who studied the affect of a 1973 eruption within the Westman Islands, the final time a volcanic eruption displaced a part of Iceland’s inhabitants, stated the doom predictions for Grindavik reminded him of the determined tone within the first weeks after the eruption. eruption there.
“At first, lots of people stated it was over for the town,” he stated. However, he added, when the eruption stopped, many individuals who had sturdy roots within the space ultimately moved again.
