Episode 44

Episode 44: Icelandic Adventures in Weather and Emergency Management

Hype of the Week:
Castle talks to Minh about his adventures in Iceland, including unique perspectives on weather and emergency management in the country

Vestrahorn Mountains, Minh Phan

Important Travel Information When Visiting Iceland

https://safetravel.is/
Iceland's Safe Travel Website provides information on weather alerts and gives visitors an opportunity to submit their travel plans to authorities. In an unfortunate situation where you may be stranded or injured, Iceland's safety officials can attempt to locate you based on your pre-submitted travel plans.

http://www.road.is/
Iceland's Road Website gives visitors and locals the ability to track roadway conditions throughout the entire country. It is very important to check this website out every time prior to driving. The weather in Iceland changes quickly, and road conditions can rapidly deteriorate.

http://en.vedur.is/
Iceland has a top-notch weather service. Forecasts tend to be quite accurate 1-2 days out. I highly recommend checking the weather every night before you go to bed and in the morning when you awake, just to have the most updated forecast. You should pay close attention to precipitation and wind, which will likely be the most impactful to you. You can also check temperatures and expected cloud cover. Additionally, the weather service in Iceland tracks the aurora borealis, so in the winter months, this certainly comes in handy.

Iceland's Department of Civil Protections and Emergency Management

Unique Perspectives from Iceland's Emergency Management

1-1-2 is the equivalent of 9-1-1 in the United States. They have a call center that takes emergency calls for fire, police, and Coast Guard (all three different call centers in the same building). They also have an Emergency Operations Center that functions like one would in the U.S. People with different responsibilities will come in and put on a vest and contribute however they can to assist in a disaster. This includes sectors like resources and management with representatives from health, media, police, and other areas that would all stage in that room during disaster.
The search and rescue operations in Iceland are primarily volunteer-based. People throughout the country volunteer to help and may be called upon to assist in rescue and recovery at a moment’s notice. Everything is coordinated from Reykjavik, and they have GPS trackers on all emergency vehicles and even can tap into locations of utility company vehicles and DOT vehicles, as they may function as emergency responders.
People get emergency management training here a lot more than they do in the United States. And if they choose, they may receive specialized training for diving, helicopter rescue, ice rescue, and other technical skill areas. Iceland has no standing military, national guard, or large law enforcement agency, so the work of volunteers is essential to everything that they do.
Their 1-1-2 call center in Reykjavik receives roughly 300,000 calls a year. About half of those calls requires an emergency response (fire, EMS, etc).
Their Coast Guard has detectors on all boats and crafts that are 6 meters or more in length. They have transponders that can be tracked by the Coast Guard at all times. If a transponder isn’t beaming back a signal, Coast Guard can call on other ships to see if a boat is in distress if it doesn’t show up on radar. Other boats and ships account for 80% of rescues of other ships.
There’s also a cool program where travelers in Iceland who are traveling alone can set up their positions and check in to let law enforcement know where they’re located. If they fail to check in, then emergency crews may go out to that area to see if they need help. For more info on this, you can visit safetravel.is.
Funding can also be an issue for something that is so dependent on volunteers. Firefighters and EMs make money by selling fireworks and figurines (Christmas collectibles/etc.) to people throughout the country. It’s become a tradition for people in Iceland to buy this stuff to support their emergency services!