Day 1March 27, 2018After my flight was delayed for about 3 hours from Newark to Keflavik because of

Day 1March 27, 2018After my flight was delayed for about 3 hours from Newark to Keflavik because of bad weather in Iceland, I hopped on board the WOW Air flight to begin my journey to Iceland! The plane was incredibly hot and uncomfortable, but it was only about a 6 hour flight, so I sucked it up and dealt with it. I purposely chose the window seat on the left side of the plane in hopes that I’d see the Northern Lights. After about 3-4 hours into the flight, I peaked out of my window, and saw a very faint but visible green glow moving across the sky. It was too faint to get a decent shot with my camera phone, but it was pretty exciting! Sadly, that would be the only time I would see the Aurora the entire trip :( After arriving at the airport and stepping out of the airplane, I was blasted with wind and rain. It’s not like I didn’t expect the weather to be terrible, but it was insanely windy, at least 40-50 mph in 30-something degree temperatures and rain showers. After I picked up my rental car from Avis/Budget, I made my way to Reykjavik. My brother put me in touch with the Magnusson family. He was friends with their son who went to Stanford, and they were gracious enough to offer me housing for a night. So off I went to their home. And once I arrived, Kristin had a nice breakfast spread waiting for me, which consisted of a large block of swedish cheese, colorful breads, tomatoes and cucumber, cereal, and a liquidy yogurt that was tasty AF. I talked with the husband, Sveinn, and he told me about the line of work that he does. He’s the Director General of the Ministry of Health, which is maybe loosely equivalent to the second in charge of the Department of Health in the United States. He’s well connected with the Icelandic government, and when he heard that my line of work deals with meteorology and emergency management, he called a few people up and arranged a meeting with me and several people that run Iceland’s emergency services and operations center…! Here’s a quick (and hopefully accurate) crash course in Emergency Management in IcelandSveinn and his friends showed me around the 1-1-2 and emergency operations center in Iceland today. (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 a 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.Something else I learned was quite intriguing. 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. Form more info on this, you can visit safetravel.isFunding 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!After a nice tour, I returned to the Magnusson home to take a nap. I had slept maybe an hour in the last 36 hours, so I was quite sleep-deprived and jet-lagged.After my nap, I walked around Reykjavik for about a couple of hours, taking in the sights and sounds before returning home. I had dinner with the Magnusson’s and a Ph.D. student named Adam, who is studying anthropology and the beginnings of the Icelandic Healthcare system. We all ate dinner, which was so delicious. Kristin made salmon with olives and other vegetables. We actually started out with half of an avocado with boiled shrimp (cold) and feta/mozarella cheese in oil as a spread. It was really delicious, especially with a squeeze of lemon. We also had baked potato slices, salad with red bell pepper, onions, and other sauce. And chocolate cake and fresh whipped cream for dessert along with a giant hollow Easter egg. We talked for 5 hours that night, and finally I hit the hay and passed out hard. -- source link

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