'It will be a cold few days,' say residents after lava flow hits water pipes in Iceland

Record ID: 1765588

  • Title: 'It will be a cold few days,' say residents after lava flow hits water pipes in Iceland
  • Date: 8th February 2024
  • Summary: KEFLAVIK, ICELAND (FEBRUARY 8, 2024)(REUTERS) SMOKE FROM VOLCANO ERUPTION SEEN IN DISTANCE BOAT BUILDINGS IN TOWN IN DISTANCE TRAFFIC AND PEOPLE WALKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) KEFLAVIK RESIDENT, BRYNDIS THORSTEINSDOTTIR, SAYING: "Well, the eruption. The third time since this year, starting of this year. So it's heavy for us, because now we don't have any hot water, because
  • Embargoed: 22nd February 2024 19:49
  • Keywords: Grindavik Reykjanes peninsula eruption lava lava flow volcano
  • Location: KEFLAVIK, ICELAND
  • City: KEFLAVIK, ICELAND
  • Country: Iceland
  • Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Europe,Earthquakes/Volcanoes/Tsunami
  • Reuters ID: LVA001899408022024RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted on Thursday (February 8) for the third time since December, triggering an emergency warning as thousands of households lost heating in the middle of winter.
    The intensity of the outbreak had eased by Thursday afternoon, said the Icelandic Met Office which is tasked with monitoring volcanoes.
    Still, the lava flow hit water pipes in the region just south of the capital, disrupting the supply of geothermally-heated water used to warm homes and leading the Civil Protection Agency to raise its alert level to emergency status.
    Reykjavik's Keflavik Airport also lost access to hot water but said it had otherwise maintained operations as usual.
    The temperature in the area stood at -7 degrees Celsius (19 Fahrenheit) and was forecast to drop to -10 C (14 F) in the evening.
    Bryndis Thorsteinsdottir, a local resident in Kefavik, told Reuters tens of thousands of people had no access to heating and many were left with no hot water.
    "It's like a Black Friday sale on electric heaters," said another Kefavik resident, Jon Jonasson, as "everybody's trying to keep their houses frost-free, to keep warm."
    The Civil Protection Agency asked people in the affected area to only use one small electrical heater per households to prevent blackouts.
    Restoring hot water via an emergency pipeline that was already under construction could take days, it said.
    (Production: Frank Nieuwenhuis,Tom Little, Ilze Filks, Carla O'Connor)
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