Heimaey, Icelaqnd

Tuesday we were in Heimaey. It was a lovely island

with interesting history.

In 1973 a volcano erupted. Because of recent bad

weather fishing boats were in and they were able to

evacuate.  However the men wanted to fight the

volcano and after consulting with nearby US military

and eliminating bombing it, they decided to pump

water on to it. The military was able to provide

extra pumps and they finally managed to build

a “dam.”

But over 400 homes were destroyed. Fortunately only

one person was killed (poison gas). The island gained

two kilometers of land area and the destroyed homes

remain buried under lava. Only about a third of those

who lost homes returned and the population has not

returned to 1973 level.

I was surprised at the number of people living there

There were lots of very nice houses.