Approximately 60 search and rescue team members are currently at work in the Grímsvötn eruption zone in southeast Iceland. They are mostly assisting farmers with herding sheep and other livestock.

The ash in Kirkjubaejarklaustur. Photo by © Robertas Mickevicius.

There have been a few cases of animals being killed, some were blinded by the ash fall and stumbled into ditches where they drowned. “The ash goes into their eyes and the animals cannot see any more than we do,” district veterinarian in Vestur-Skaftafellssýsla county, Gunnar Thorkelsson, told Fréttabladid.

However, the situation is better than originally feared, mostly because the content of fluorine in the ash is low—fluorine can prove hazardous for animals. Thorkelsson said farmers are trying to secure their animals’ access to fodder and running water.

Search and rescue team members are also visiting all farms in the area to see what the conditions are like, a press release from ICE-SAR states.

They have also been called out to prevent loose objects on construction sites from being blown away in the storm that was raging in southeast Iceland.

This morning the sky over Kirkjubaejarklaustur, which has been subject to the most severe ash fall, cleared up, although conditions were still windy, whirling up ash. But it has become dark in the rural district Fljótshverfi.

Please note: The next issue of the print edition of Iceland Review will include extensive coverage of the eruption. If you subscribe now, you will receive a photo book by IR editor/photographer Páll Stefánsson of the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull as a gift.

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