Amanda Melián is literally “fed up.” Three years ago, she, her husband, and their two children - one three years old and the other just a few weeks old - had to leave their newly built home with just the essentials, fleeing from the fury of the volcano in La Palma. The next 19th of September will mark three years.
Although it initially seemed that her house was going to be spared due to the direction of the lava flows, on November 25th, the volcano made its way through a new eruptive vent right in Amanda's garden, just 20 meters from her front door. This new flow was precisely the one that took part of the Las Manchas cemetery. The “blow” was terrible for Amanda because it meant the end of many personal dreams. However, the strange beauty of that tragedy, with the house buried under a thick black blanket of ash and the eruptive vent at her doorstep, was immortalized by photographer Emilio Morenatti and, after going around the world, was chosen as one of the best images of 2021 by The New York Times.
Amanda and her family did not like that at all, learning about the fate of their house when the photo made headlines, but they didn't say anything at the time.
Amanda Melián's family lives in a modular housing provided by the Canary Islands Government and they have not been compensated yet
In the past three years, they have survived as best they could, first staying with relatives and for the past two years in a modular home provided by the Government of the Canary Islands, which they do not feel as their own. They have only received 13,000 euros in private donations. At the same time, they have been fighting through bureaucracy, procedures, and administrations to see if they could recover their home. However, all has been in vain. They have not received a single euro for their loss, even though it was their primary residence, and there has been no response regarding the possibility of repairing it. But they have had to witness and endure how tourists, the media, and “anyone who wanted to” walked around, approached the house, and took as many pictures as they wanted. In the area, there is a sign that reads “No Entry, Residents Only” that everyone disregards. “Everyone goes through there. Although the few remaining owners have decided that we don't want people to come, they still come, and excursions are organized,” they denounce.
The 'volcano house' in La Palma, covered by plastic
A few days ago, they went to see the house and found a group of tourists accompanied by a guide who was telling them to take whatever pictures they wanted “without any problem.” “It really upset me. Nobody has asked us for permission,” says Amanda, who then decided with her husband to cover the house with plastic and put an end to the story. Last Thursday they went with some friends and covered it. “They don't give us any solutions, they have forgotten about us, and the rest of the world is taking photos of my house,” says Amanda, who adds, “It's not fair for me to be without a home while others profit from it and from others' pain, so it's over.”
Three years after the eruption, this woman from the Canary Islands complains that her house is still buried and has suffered significant damage. She wants to remove the ash and explore the possibility of restoring it. In March, she requested the El Paso City Council to open up access through the ash, which still covers everything, to bring in machinery and assess the feasibility of saving the house. So far, there has been no response. “We want to know what needs to be fixed,” says Amanda, who is unsure if she will ever be able to live there due to the presence of volcanic tubes in the area, but as she points out, she wants to “find out how it is.”
Archive video on the devastating aftermath of the La Palma volcano
On the upcoming 19th, it will have been three years since the eruption in La Palma, and the affected people are still being neglected
Her husband owns a piece of land where they could build a house in a few years, but everything will depend on whether they are granted a mortgage. “If they don't give it to us, we will have to figure something out. We will have to adapt to whatever comes, as we have done so far,” says Amanda. She remembers that when the volcano erupted, they had just finished renovating the upper part of the house, which used to be an old winery that they had been slowly refurbishing. Last week, they managed to pay off the house loan thanks to the insurance they had taken out with the mortgage. “And so we keep going, just going around in circles,” she concludes.