‘I felt like I was in a dystopian novel’: residents unsure they’ll ever return to volcano-threatened Icelandic town

Andrea Ævarsdóttir, the director of Grindavík library, has moved with her two teenage sons and three cats to her mother’s one-bedroom apartment. Photograph: Sigga Ella/The Guardian

Sólný Pálsdóttir tries in vain to emulate the sound that emerged from under her home before she fled it on Friday night. “It was like a big animal coming, it was like a lion – and of course we saw the Earth moving,” says the teacher and photographer.

Having lived through weeks of nightly earthquakes, and three years of volcanic eruptions, Sólný had been planning to cook a quiet dinner for her son and heavily pregnant daughter-in-law. But when the 53-year-old heard that sound, she knew it was time to leave.