Observers Flock To Erupting Reunion Volcano

Transcript

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

One of the world's most active volcanoes is at it again. Le Piton de la Fournaise, which translates to peak of the furnace, is on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean. It's been spewing lava since yesterday. Reporter Emma Jacobs says that rather than running away, locals jumped in their cars and drove straight towards the erupting volcano to see it in action.

EMMA JACOBS, BYLINE: As the sun set on Wednesday night, dozens of cars snaked up the scrubby, volcanic mountainside in a dizzying series of hairpin turns. Towards the top, the road becomes a cratered, unpaved path through the red dirt and rocks left by past eruptions.

PATRICE TORDJMAN: (Speaking French).

JACOBS: That's where I meet Patrice Tordjman, a park ranger who's also a geologist who's about the hike the last few miles to see what he can observe from a peak above the crater. He says he doesn't expect the eruption to last long.

TORDJMAN: (Speaking French).

JACOBS: "It came very quickly, and it will depart quickly as well," he says, "which is typical." Tordjman, like others hiking to see the geological fireworks, is going to bundle up. It's the height of summer in the southern hemisphere, but the temperature at this altitude has dropped to around 50 degrees. Jean Yves is back for his second view of the day and is waiting by his car for friends. He moved to Reunion three years ago from metropolitan France, but says this is the first time he's been free to go see the volcano in action. Earlier in the day he says he had a spectacular view of the lava flow.

JEAN YVES: (Through interpreter) In the beginning of the afternoon, we were really in a total fog, and on the stroke of 4:30, it cleared out, and you could see the entire flow of lava there which begins almost at the summit of the volcano and flows towards the sea. It's really magnificent.

JACOBS: People are barred from living too near the active volcano on the southern end of this tropical island. It erupts almost annually, usually only for a couple of hours, but sometimes for a couple of days. And its eruptions usually do no harm, but in 2007, the eruption of the century lasted for a month and flowed right over the national highway. And in 1977, lava flowed from the volcano to the town of Sainte Rose about 10 miles away. It stopped just inside the door of a church the faithful soon restored and named the church of the lava.

Yves friends arrive, and they head off towards the smoke curling into the sky. Yves's enthusiasm encourages Jerome and Naziha Belloc. They're unpacking layers of warm clothing and snacks from their car, including a baguette. This might be a volcanic island, but it's still France, of course. Their girls, Hannah and Lola, bounce around outside, impatient to be off. Jerome Belloc says they've tried before to see the spectacle.

JEROME BELLOC: (Speaking French).

JACOBS: One time in the middle of the night, he says, the family had walked an hour to try and see a past eruption. Two hours - his wife corrects him. The two-hour walk - all for nothing. The lava had stopped flowing by the time they arrived. That was too bad, he says, but they still came back. This time they will see it, he says. The eruption still hadn't stopped in the morning. For NPR News, I'm Emma Jacobs on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.