With tears and uncertainty, locals leave earthquake-hit Azores island

By Catarina Demony and Pedro Nunes

SAO JORGE, Portugal (Reuters) – With no thought once they would possibly return, a retired couple had their image taken outdoors their beloved home earlier than leaving Sao Jorge, an island in Portugal’s Azores that’s bracing for catastrophe following a collection of small earthquakes.

Fatima and Antonio Soares, who’re of their 70s, determined to go away their house together with dozens of different residents on Saturday, per week since hundreds of tremors began to rattle the volcanic, mid-Atlantic island.

Seismologists worry the greater than 12,700 tremors, which have had a magnitude of as much as 3.3, may set off a volcanic eruption or a strong quake.

“I requested the taxi driver to please take an image of us as a result of I do not know if my home will look the identical once I come again,” Fatima stated because the couple waited at Sao Jorge’s airport for a flight to the close by island of Terceira.

“Tears began to fall immediately,” she stated.

The couple, who have been on the island when an enormous quake struck in 1964, are staying at a small resort in the intervening time however hope to return to their island, house to round 8,400 folks, as quickly as attainable.

“Leaving our home at this age is difficult,” Antonio stated.

Dozens of different Sao Jorge residents additionally left early on Saturday, with the most recent authorities figures exhibiting about 1,250 folks left the island on March 23 and March 24 alone.

The area’s CIVISA seismo-volcanic surveillance centre raised the volcanic alert to Stage 4 on Wednesday, which means there’s a “actual chance” the volcano may erupt for the primary time since 1808.

“Yearly Sao Jorge has few earthquakes and now we’re speaking about hundreds,” seismologist Joao Fontiela, who’s on the island organising seismic monitoring stations, instructed Lusa information company.

He thinks the present scenario may drag for months.

CIVISA stated there was “no proof {that a} volcanic eruption was imminent” however stated such a situation couldn’t be discounted. The variety of earthquakes stays above regular ranges, it stated.

The island’s ports stated on Saturday they have been getting ready in case of a pure catastrophe, and authorities are drawing up plans to maintain livestock and different animals secure.

Care house residents and people hospitalised within the municipality of Velas, the place nearly all of the seismic exercise has been recorded, have already been transferred to the opposite aspect of the island.

(Reporting by Catarina Demony, Guillermo Martinez and Pedro Nunes in Sao Jorge Modifying by Helen Popper)