While ashfall continues to decrease and flights return to normal, the danger of flooding in the southeast now grows nearer. The government takes advantage of the situation to provide work for the unemployed, and the city of Reykjavík offered free entry into pools for stranded tourists. Also, a rare photo of an ash tornado is captured.
Icelandair has announced that all flights have returned to normal, with the exception of FI450/451 London and FI436 Manchester/Glasgow, which were cancelled. Iceland Express is also still flying to and from New York, London and Copenhagen.
Air quality in the capital area has returned to somewhat reasonable levels, and geologist Helgi Björnsson told RÚV that ashfall will continue to decrease, although now there is the danger that there might be flooding as a result of basaltic lava meeting glacial ice. He predicts that things should calm down within a week, although the precise behaviour of a volcano is impossible to forecast.
Meanwhile, the government is making lemonade from lemons, by sending students and the unemployed to the eruption area, to assist in cleaning up the ashfall in the hardest hit places, Eyjan reports. On a more local level, RÚV reports that the city of Reykjavík offered free entry to municipal pools and museums yesterday to tourists who found themselves stranded in Iceland.
Meanwhile, a man driving on the way to Jökullsárlón encountered a small twister comprised mostly of ash, which crossed the highway in front of his vehicle. “I just stopped the car,” Runólfur Hauksson, who drives the amphibious “carboat” at the Jökullsárlón lagoon, told Vísir. “Otherwise I would have driven right into that. I didn’t dare, though. It was incredibly powerful.” A photo of the twister can be seen by clicking the link, and then clicking the image.
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