The Steering Committee of Pevolca has ordered this Sunday the evacuation of scientists and personnel from the various emergency services who were carrying out their work in the areas near the lava flow of the La Palma volcano, according to air quality measurements.
The technical director of the Steering Committee, Miguel Ángel Morcuende, explained in a press conference that the air quality this morning "was not the best" in the area where the evacuations have taken place, which are the vicinity of the lava flow and the interior of the previously evacuated area.
Miguel Ángel Morcuende has clarified that this problem affects "strictly" these areas and assured that in the population centers that are outside the security perimeter, set at 2.5 kilometers from the main cone, there is currently no air quality problem.
In any case, he has reported that suspended particles, a phenomenon associated with the volcano, continue to affect, in addition to the suspended dust from the African continent that forced the confinement of several neighborhoods last Friday.
On the other hand, Morcuende explained that, according to the latest data provided by the Copernicus satellite -from last night at 02:00 hours-, the affected area is already 399 ha, some 52.5 ha more than yesterday. The maximum width of the lava flow is 950 meters and there are 30.7 km of roads that have been rendered unusable. Also, there would be 1,074 buildings affected by the eruption, 946 of them destroyed and 128 damaged. As for the people sheltered, there are 205 staying at the Fuencaliente hotel.
Regarding the problems of supplying drinking and irrigation water in those neighborhoods of the municipalities of El Paso and Los Llanos that are south of the intersection of the lava flows, the technical director of Pevolca indicated that they are trying to solve them and reported that there have been no incidents so far in the electricity supply or telecommunications.
In relation to the lava flows that have emerged in recent days, Morcuende pointed out that they are still being monitored and watched, and added that the surface of the lava delta is currently at 28 ha.
