Operation Ash Clearance

Buy a house in Sicily we thought, it will be fun we thought ...

This year Mount Etna has erupted over fifty times. Satellite images have revealed that she has erupted so much in 2021 that she had grown about 100 feet (30 meters) in height in just six months.

Mount Etna is the highest volcano in Europe. She covers an area of approximately 1250 square km and her usual height reaches approximately 3350 metres. For repeated eruptions over many years Etna can be considered as one of the most active volcanoes in the world. From her height Mount Etna dominates Sicily, its three surrounding seas and the tip of the Italian mainland.

When we first viewed our Sicilian house in November 2007 our Sicilian big brother Gianfranco told us that the view of Etna from the roof terrace was so spectacular that if she erupted we would be able to make toast and indeed we do have a jaw dropping view of our beloved volcano. Having Etna is like having a living painting and we could spend all day watching her.

No stage in the world would ever be able to perform such a unique show like Etna.

When Etna erupts sometimes the lapelli can reach thousands of metres, even miles, and depending on the wind direction it can travel in different directions across Sicily. Lapelli are small particles of volcanic glass that fall out of the air during a volcanic eruption. Lapelli is Latin for "little stones".

We have now had our Sicilian house fourteen years and we had never experienced a violent eruption until this year. We have been at home in Sicily and experienced a light dusting of black sand but never a big eruption.

In December 2014 whilst back in London we received a message from our lovely English friend Norma, who lives down the road from our Sicilian house, saying "to say that your roof terrace resembles an ash tray is an understatement!!!" Mount Etna had erupted in spectacular style and turned our town Giardini Naxos black. I flew out and together with Gianfranco and my best friend Valentina we filled a copious amount of heavy duty bin bags with the lapelli. The bags must be heavy duty because the lapelli can be as sharp as glass.

Moving on to 2021 ...

With Etna seemingly in constant eruption this year thankfully Giardini Naxos got away unscathed until April when I started seeing photos and videos on social media that Etna had erupted yet again and that the lapelli (lets call it ash) was heading north east towards Giardini Naxos and Taormina. Once again our roof terrace and balcony were black.

Due to the Covid pandemic we were stuck in lockdown in London and had already had to cancel our Spring road trip home to Sicily. The problem with the ash is that it can clog our drains if it rains but that was hopefully ok because we were heading into dry summer months. I was due to fly out to Sicily in July but then my flight was cancelled.

My next flight was scheduled for September for a few days. By that time it would have been twenty months since we had closed the doors to our Sicilian home.

Operation Ash Clearance Part I ...

So there I was sitting on my flight to Catania in September with my Cinderella costume packed ready for operation ash clearance (I am joking about the costume). The plan was that I would sweep the ash and bag it up ready to be disposed of once we returned at the end of the month with our dog Daisy by car. However the weather and an unfortunate accident had other ideas.

On arrival at Catania airport the clouds were dark and looming and on the way home in the car with my driver Angelo the heavens opened with intense rain. By the time I reached our Sicilian house the ash on our balcony and roof terrace was sodden and wet which makes it nigh on impossible to clear as the ash becomes clumpy and heavy and difficult to sweep. I waited for the rain to stop and decided to go for a walk.

As I walked along the seafront in Giardini Naxos I noticed that a lot of ash was still present on the roads from a recent small eruption a few days earlier. I stopped for an early dinner then headed back home. To get back to our house from the seafront we need to go through an underpass under a railway line. As I mentioned before the volcanic ash is like glass and mixed with rain it makes a dangerous combination. Earlier this year I had fractured my ankle (I am a wee bit accident prone) and it is still a bit weak. As I walked up the stairs towards our road I slipped whilst looking for my keys in my handbag and fell and hit my head. As I tried to stand up a passer by asked if I was ok and by this time my head had started to spin and then the next thing I knew I was waking up in an ambulance with a paramedic looking over me very concerned. My first reaction was to call my husband to tell him what was happening but as he answered his phone in London the battery on my phone decided to die and the line went dead. It was not until the next day that my friends in Giardini Naxos said to me "do you remember what you said to him?" Apparently the only words I said as the phone died were "I am with two men and they are taking me away" (then silence). My poor husband thought I had been abducted!!!!!!

Eventually the ambulance reached Taormina hospital and I was left in a room in a wheelchair with no phone or phone charger. A doctor came to see me and his first question was "are you pregnant?" Me: "NO" Doctor: "are you drunk?" Me: "NO" Nurse: "Sarah how much alcohol have you drunk?" Me: "only two glasses of wine!" I was then left on my own for two hours and because I had been knocked out I could not even think of my husbands telephone number for anyone to call him or even think of anyone’s name in Giardini Naxos for the hospital to contact.

Meanwhile in London my husband was scared and frantic as he had not heard from me for hours and so he started calling around our friends to see if they had heard from me. No one had and everyone was very confused and concerned. My husband called our friend Vincenzo from Franco Group Taormina, who are like family to us and have a set of keys to our house, they can also see our home from their home. As everything seemed so suspicious Vincenzo called the local police who let themselves into our home and came back downstairs and told Vincenzo that I was not there. "It is obvious" they said to him "your friend is with another man and does not want her husband to know, why else would she be in Sicily on her own without her husband?" and that was the first thoughts of the police, not that I might have had an accident.

“NO" said an exasperated Vincenzo "that is not possible, can you not call the hospital?" Police: “But she has only been missing two hours!!!”

It was like a scene out of Inspector Montalbano.

So finally the police called the hospital and what did they respond? "Yes she is here but she is drunk!!!" Arghhhhhhhh!!!!!!! Vincenzo explained to the police that he knew me very well and that would also be impossible. My Sicilian big brother has a theory that I was drunk on happiness because I was so elated to be back in Sicily and therefore was not paying attention to where I was stepping.

Back at Taormina hospital the nurse came to see me and exclaimed "Sarah!!! Your husband has called the police!!!" Then I was whisked off in my wheelchair for a full examination, Covid test and blood tests and then sent off for x-rays and a brain scan. Finally something was happening and hopefully I could go home soon.

As I was being wheeled back to the emergency department along a long corridor I saw a vision at the end, it was Vincenzo. "Vincenzo" I croaked "is that you???" and he replied "Sarah!!! What happened? Mike is very scared!!!!!" But now I knew I was in safe hands. Vincenzo explained that we just needed to wait for the test results and then he would be able to take me home.

An hour later, and after being told by the doctor to wear more sensible shoes in wet weather not summer sandals and that the blood tests showed that I was not drunk and that I actually had concussion, I was back home with fractured ribs, an extremely bruised coccyx and multiple cuts and grazes on my knees and elbows and so operation ash clearance became an abandoned mission. Although with a little discomfort, with sore ribs and a sore bottom, I was able to sweep the stubborn wet ash gently into little mounds that seemingly resembled mini Mount Etna's ready for when we arrived later that month with our dog Daisy.

Operation Ash Clearance Part II ...

After our road trip home to Sicily at the end of September, albeit a tyre blow out on the French motorway delayed our journey, we arrived home safely in Sicily and then for six weeks the weather decided to work against us yet again.

It took several days, with intermittent dry days, for my husband to sweep and to clear the ash from our roof terrace. He filled an incredible forty four bags. But what could we do with it all because we had been in lockdown in London during the April eruption so we had missed the collections by the local commune.

I topped up my pots of cacti and geraniums and kept a big bucket of the ash for future top ups. Friends in the UK had asked us if we could bring some ash home for their gardens. The ash contains dozens of minerals including magnesium, calcium, sodium, sulphur, copper, iron and zinc, all important to plant growth. The fertile volcanic terrain in Sicily is why our beautiful island produces some of the most unique produce in the world, such as citrus fruit, olives and pistachios.

We had heard that some people were actually selling their ash to farms and gardeners on Amazon!!!!!!!

Then Etna gave us the solution.

On the 23rd October on a clear day we had just returned home from the beach with Daisy when we heard a big boom and our windows and shutter doors rattled. We thought nothing of it as Etna often has rumbles and grumbles and so we made some coffee and took our cups upstairs to enjoy on our roof terrace.

Then all of a sudden I felt what I thought was rain and I said to my husband "Oh no, it is raining again" but this did not feel like rain, it felt sharp and stung a little on my arm. It sounded like ice pellets were landing on our floor tiles. As we looked up a massive big black cloud of ash was heading towards us. The ash rained down on us for over two hours.

We had had a severe weather warning that a "medicane" (a rare mediterranean cyclone) was heading to Sicily from North Africa the next day and so quick action was needed to clear the ash whilst it was dry otherwise we would be back to square one again.

Around us we could see our neighbours in full swing using leaf blowers to help clear the ash from their courtyards, roofs and terraces. Some were using hoovers. I told my husband to grab some old sheets to cover our car as the ash can scratch and damage the paintwork and windscreens and I ran downstairs and grabbed a shower cap (please do not laugh) along with my husbands trusty Sicilian coppola hat because when the sharp lapelli gets into your hair it is really hard to wash out. Although I would imagine that the fertile mineral content would have been good for my roots.

Four hours later we had another twenty seven bags of ash. Sigh!!!!!

The eruption was so violent that the ash cloud reached Greece with flights cancelled at Athens airport.

At least we knew that our local commune would start to arrange collection points so we would be able to dispose of the ash and also the ash from April. Ash clearance for Sicily is a big problem and some towns have faced bankruptcy over Etna clean up costs and the Italian government earmarked this year €5m to help villages get rid of ash.

It was impossible for us to use our car now because where we park our car behind our house involves driving up a steep slope and our tyres would just not grab and turn, it was as if they were spinning on glass.

As we walked down to our seafront I took heed of the doctor the month before and wore trainers as the sharp ash crunched under our feet like black snow and we could hear a constant screech of car tyres as they skid on the glasslike stones.

And then Cyclone Apollo came.

We were told by the commune to stay indoors and not to go out. Torrential rain fell and very rough seas and high waves broke on the coastlines causing flooding and mud slides and unfortunately two people died in Siracusa as their car became submerged under water. This rare weather system was suggested to have been caused by rising sea temperatures that were higher than the yearly average. Some say that this is the after effects of this summer's temperatures when Sicily experienced Europe's highest recorded temperature hitting a scorching 48.8℃ on the 11th August.

During Cyclone Apollo piazzas and streets became like lakes and rivers and the cities of Catania and Siracusa and their surrounding areas were left under water for days. More than 300mm (11.8in) of rain, almost half the average amount expected in Sicily each year, fell in just a few hours.

As we emerged from the calm after the storm the rain water had seemingly washed away most of the ash from our road however there was still a lot of ash around our town. Collection of the ash had to be delayed until it was dry enough to be collected and then we were notified to leave the ash in our local piazza. It took several days and car journeys, as the bags were heavy, but finally along with other people in our commune, most of whom used wheelbarrows, we managed to dispose of our ash. Our bags were tipped on top of other piles of ash.

Operation ash clearance was a mission completed and after six weeks it was time to head back to London for winter.

Now we just needed to thoroughly clean the floors inside our house as the ash gets walked inside everywhere especially when you have a four legged fur baby running around it for six weeks.

It never gets any easier leaving Sicily but this time the unseasonal extreme bad weather prevented us from doing so much, meeting friends we have not seen for nearly two years, meeting new Blog contacts, visiting new places and venues and also painting the outside of our house and balcony railings. A trip to the south east also had to be cancelled due to flooding. But Sicily is beautiful whatever the weather.

We patiently waited a long time due to the pandemic to return to our beloved Sicilian house but sadly the forces of nature worked against us with unseasonal cyclones, circulating storms, flooding and a violent volcanic eruption. Even our friends, neighbours and the locals said that they had never experienced weather like it at this time of year.

The pandemic also took its toll on many of our local bars and restaurants by having to close early due to a lack of tourists. So come on guys, fingers crossed, we can get tourism thriving again in Sicily in 2022!!!!

Despite the weather we still truly had an amazing time and we ate so much delicious food and Daisy somehow managed to go to the beach every morning to dig holes. We are now counting down the days until we will be driving back for Spring and fingers crossed the weather and Etna will be more kind to us. As my husband said as we closed the doors for yet another year "at least we know our drains work".

NEW Blog post coming soon "In Search of Indiana Jones" 🤠

If you enjoyed this Blog post then you might enjoy these ones from my Blog archive:

Lockdown in London ... The Road Trip Home https://whitealmond-privatesicily.blogspot.com/2021/09/lockdown-in-london-road-trip-home.html

Giardini Naxos ... Our Town https://whitealmond-privatesicily.blogspot.com/2020/02/giardini-naxos-my-town.html

The Story of How We Bought Our Sicilian House https://whitealmond-privatesicily.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-story-of-how-we-bought-our-sicilian.html

14 Things I Have Learned Living in Sicily https://whitealmond-privatesicily.blogspot.com/2018/06/14-things-i-have-learned-living-in.html

22 Ways to Experience Etna https://whitealmond-privatesicily.blogspot.com/2018/09/22-ways-to-experience-etna.html

Mount Etna by Jeep with Tripping Sicily https://whitealmond-privatesicily.blogspot.com/2017/01/mount-etna-by-jeep-with-tripping-sicily.html

Mount Etna & The Legend of King Arthur https://whitealmond-privatesicily.blogspot.com/2019/01/mount-etna-legend-of-king-arthur.html

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Enjoy my Photo Gallery of Operation Ash Clearance