Residents from a small Icelandic town under threat from volcanic eruption have described ‘apocalyptic’ existence as they fear for their future. Last Friday, thousands of Grindavik residents were ordered to leave as the town was rocked by hundreds of earthquakes. The small fishing town is 34 miles from Reykjavík and is home to the famous tourist attraction the Blue Lagoon. Many have been unable to return to the ‘danger zone’ to collect their belongings, as earthquakes continue to strike the town. Grindavik resident Andrea Ævarsdóttir, 46, told The Independent: “Everything just seems so unreal, I feel like I’m in a dystopian movie. I’m just waiting to wake up from this nightmare.” The mother was getting ready to go into Reykjavík to celebrate her son Björgvin Hrafnar’s 16th birthday when their house started to shake on Friday. “Some of them [the earthquakes] were like a big truck had driven past your house, the bigger ones were like the same truck had hit your house,” she said. “Everything was shaking so bad, the floors were going up and down.” The family planned on staying overnight at her mother’s home, but they were alerted en route that they were going to be evacuated so only had their overnight bags and had left their cats behind. Ms Ævarsdóttir made the difficult call to return home to get her cats and medication but was stopped at a checkpoint on the main road Grindavikurvegur. Fortunately, the mother was granted special permission to return to collect her tablets and three pets before heading back. Like other Grindavik residents, Ms Ævarsdóttir was allowed to return home on Monday to collect her belongings but had to obey a 10-minute time limit. She is now living with her 16 and 14-year-old sons in her mother’s cramped two-bedroom apartment. Describing the surreality and sadness of leaving her home, she said: “I was crying non-stop when we got to Grindavik, we were allowed to drive into town. “We had ten minutes, you don’t have the mental capacity to think, I was in panic mode, I just grabbed what I could see. “I grabbed all of the clothes I could think of but I left one of the packed suitcases behind.” The children do not yet have to return to school as they recover from the shock, but it remains unclear where they will go, explained the mother. The distraught mother works as the director of a local and public school library and explained the families ‘entire existence is in Grindavik’. Her home of eight and a half years is still standing but some have fallen to the ground due to the strong quakes. “It was really hard to see the state of some of the houses and streets. My house seemed fine but this area is really unstable.” Now the mother has to decide whether she wants to eventually move back to the town, if it isn’t destroyed by the volcanic eruption. She says residents have accustomed to living with earthquakes, but living on an active volcano fissure is a different story. “I love living in Grindavik, it’s a really nice close-knit town but now comes the fear if we get to move back, do we want to move back?” she said. “This area is really unstable. Do we want to experience evacuation again?” Siggeir Ævarsson, 38, is another Grindavik resident who does not know if he will be able to return to his family home. The teacher had planned to meet his brother and sister-in-law but after the earthquakes stuck on Friday his brother-in-law urged them to come sooner. “I’ve seen a lot Earthquakes but this is something I’ve never felt before. “The sources were 2km away from our house. Things were falling down from shelves, I was standing in the kitchen I thought, can I even put pans on the stove.” Alongside his wife and youngest daughter,Þorgeir Úlfar,14, they grabbed their two cats and left. The 38-year-old says he and his wife, Soffía Sveinsdóttir, 39, have been fortunate as his sister-in-law has a spacious house with spare rooms. Mr Ævarsson was allowed to return on Sunday and was able to fill two cars with their items. “It was like going into an apocalyptic movie. The town was empty and lifeless. There were cracks everywhere. “It was very weird to walk into the house, it looked exactly the same the lights were still on. “Other houses are cracking in two, my house was fine, but a few metres up the road they are ruined.” As a born-and-bred Grindavikian, the father–of-two is trying to remain positive and “not think about lava flowing through his home”. “I’m trying to think of this as extension of a holiday, I’m watching movies, drinking beer.” Read More Iceland residents describe ‘apocalyptic’ scenes as they flee volcano threat Iceland eruption likely scientists warn as ‘biggest bulldozer’ deployed - live Biggest volcanic eruptions in the last 10 years as Iceland town faces devastation Is it safe to travel to Iceland? Your rights if you have a holiday booked Huge cracks appear on roads in Iceland’s volcano-threatened town Iceland earthquake: Town could be obliterated if volcanic eruption strikes

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When taking a flight, the etiquette of fellow passengers is one of the contributing factors that determines how good the experience will be. But one passenger who was on a "completely full Southwest flight" has sparked a debate after complaining about the person sitting next to her, all because she refused to use headphones when watching videos on her phone. A 32-year-old woman took to Reddit's "Am I the A**hole?" forum to share her frustration as she travelled from Dallas to Chicago. "I was in the window seat and there was a 50+ lady sitting in the aisle seat," she began. "The plane filled up and only middle seats were left so I was happy when this cute girl in her early 20’s wanted to sit in our middle seat. "She had her Chanel purse, and basic b gucci sneakers on.' Then, things took a turn when the woman whipped out her phone. "While we were taxiing for ~40 minutes before take off, I put my air pods in and start listening to an audio book and she proceeds to pull her phone out and starts watching TikTok videos on full volume. The poster described how she was in "somewhat disbelief by her lack of self-awareness," and thought "no way she’s going to do this for more than 5 minutes." However, it continued on... "Well, 30 minutes passes by and she is still scrolling through her feed and the videos are so loud (I can hardly hear my audio book) and just ridiculous mind-numbing crap." The woman couldn't put up with the noise any longer and decided to ask her to lower the volume. "I am finally so annoyed that I turn to her & ask if she can please turn her volume down or put in headphones. "She says nothing to me, but gives me the nastiest look like I am in the wrong for telling her off and proceeds to barely turn it down." Fuming from the woman's lack of response, the original poster is "so offended" she then turns to brightness up on her phone to "very obviously text my husband about what a devil she is and basically rip her apart and make sure my texts about her are within her line of sight." "I am sure she saw the texts, bc she avoided eye contact with me for the rest of the trip." She then asked: 'AITA for saying something and making sure she saw my awful comments about her in response to her reaction or can someone please tell me what is going on in these people’s heads? Is it entitlement? "Do they consider the people around them and just not care?? Help me out here!" Since sharing the situation, people have been weighing in with their thoughts - most believed the original poster was not in the wrong and agreed that it's basic etiquette to not play videos out loud. But the original poster was also criticised for her passive-aggressive move and was told she should have just told the flight attendant who would have sorted the problem. One person said: "NTA. Basic etiquette requires headphones. "Also, this may actually be in the contract of carriage, depending on which airline. Next time get an FA involved. They will shut that crap down in nothing flat typically because they hate it too." "NTA Once you asked once, it's time to get the flight attendant involved. Let them handle it," another person wrote. Someone else added: "ESH [Everyone sucks here]. Her for not using headphones, but you for your passive-aggressive bs. All you needed to do was ring for the flight attendant to handle it. That’s their job." "She’s the AH because any sane person would have had enough self-awareness to be mortified and immediately complied when you asked her to wear ear phones," a fourth person commented. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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