A new vent has emerged in the side of the volcano that is lower than the main one and pointing in a north direction, which has led the emergency services to evacuate residents of the Tacande area tonight. Up until this afternoon, more than 5,500 residents have been evacuated from their homes due to their proximity to the eruption zone or because their properties were in the path that the lava flows are following.
This eruption, the eighth that La Palma has experienced since the 15th century, is now erupting through two fissures aligned from north to south and approximately 200 metres apart, with various emission points, as detailed by the scientific committee that is monitoring the emergency.
Tacande is a town with 704 inhabitants and the emergency services have not yet specified how many of them are going to be evicted from their homes, but insists that the evacuation is for precautionary reasons.
In the last few hours the lava flows have slowed down, and although it was initially estimated that it would reach the sea tonight, experts have ruled that out until tomorrow, said the director of Pevolca, Miguel Ángel Morcuende, in the latest press conference tonight. This does not mean, he clarified, that the eruption has decreased its activity, but it will be confirmed in the next few hours if this reduction in speed is a trend or not.
The technicians have explained that the lava continues to descend at the height of the Todoque nucleus, filling spaces and at some points it overflows but at a slower speed than expected, so it will not reach the coast in the next few hours as expected.
