Met at night due to a suspected magma run

Representatives of the Civil Defense and the Icelandic Met Office …

Representatives of the Civil Defense and the Icelandic Met Office met last night. mbl.is/Eggert Jóhannesson

The on-call shift of Civil Protection and Emergency Management met with the Icelandic Meteorological Agency before the decision was made not to launch the entire system following the suspicion that a magma run had begun at Sundhnúkagígar crater row.

"When the meters went off at the Met Office, the Met Office contacted our people to assess whether the system needed to be started. Last night, the on-call shift was called, who contacted our expert who met with the Icelandic Met Office. Still, it didn't go any further than that," says Hjördís Guðmundsdóttir, director of communications for civil protection, to mbl.is.

According to Guðmundsdóttir, the activation of the "system" involves calling out the coordination center which is currently located on Laugavegur. This has been done twice with a suspected magma run which turned out to be a false alarm. It didn't happen this time.

Hjördís Guðmundsdóttir,director of communications for civil protection.

Hjördís Guðmundsdóttir,director of communications for civil protection. mbl.is/Eggert Jóhannesson

20 minutes away

In a coordination center, individuals from the police, the Red Cross, Isavia, Landsbjörg Rescue Team, and other entities that are part of the civil defense system come together.

"All these parties have people on call. Our on-call unit is never more than 20 minutes away from a coordination center," Guðmundsdóttir says.

According to her, an SMS was never sent to the residents of Grindavík urging them to evacuate.

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