Wouldn't the island have recovered back to it's normal level of hellish wasteland by now?
Heh, good show there got a hearty laugh on that one.
The bartender in Riften still has family in Morrowind living on a farm there, it's mentioned as part of a quest as background and a potential alternate path to completing the quest. So there is life and people living there, we just don't know to what extent the province, let alone the island, has recovered from the eruption.