Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
• The evacuees were extremely positive about the exercise. People were willing
to participate probably due to the major earthquakes that occurred in 2000.
The evacuation was viewed as a success by all emergency management offi cials.
The main negative comments that arose were attributable to the problem with the com-
munication system. Comments in relation to this included:
• The information that is given to the people is crucial. They need to know how
long they have before the flood comes. Also timing of the warnings should al-
low time for the rescue teams to help the evacuees if the weather conditions are
bad. The sweepers can play this role.
• Phone calls and sms (text messages) were not good. People joked about this at
the time but once they went home they were probably more concerned that they
could have been stuck in a real flood.
• It is always the communication that breaks down and therefore the sweeper's
role should be more concentrated on (providing warning and evacuation infor-
mation to people). Technology can break down especially in a volcanic disaster.
It must be organized as a door-to-door operation.
• We have broadcast advertisements asking people to report if they did not receive
a message during the exercise. We have asked them to give their details to the
local police and ICP directly so we can try to sort out this problem.
Questionnaire Survey Interviews with Residents
This section is divided as per the three sections of the questionnaire. The first section
describes participant demographics based on their responses to classification ques-
tions. Participants' responses to both open and closed knowledge and perception ques-
tions of Katla, jökulhlaup hazards, and emergency procedures are presented in the
second section. The third section reports participants' responses to questions relating
to their attendance at and their perception of the information meetings on Katla, the
evacuation plan and exercise, and their use of hazard information available through
various media sources. The sequence of questions presented here is the same sequence
as that within the questionnaire. Quick-look summary tables have been provided in
each section for specific closed questions.
Participant Demographic
A total of 54 participants were recruited from 67 residents who were approached to
take part in the questionnaire survey interviews, providing a response rate of 81%. Our
sample included 19% of participants from Vestur-Eyjafjöll, 26% of participants from
Fljótshlío, 15% of participants from Vestur-Landeyjar, and 20% of participants from
each Austur-Landeyjar and Pykkvibær (Table 1). The majority (57%) of participants
were 51 years of age or over and 57% of participants lived within 2 km of either the
river Markarfljót or Pverá. Nearly all participants (98%) had lived in Iceland most of
their lives. Education qualifications of our participants was quite diverse; 28% held a
trade certificate or diploma, 15% had a university degree or higher, and a further 13%
stated an education qualification from another source. Fifty percent of participants
were full-time farmers while another 9% were part-time farmers.
