"Suðurstrandarvegur road is in danger"

“We can see that the advance of the eruption has slowed down, but there is still considerable amount of eruption and lava flow that reaches these two routes of lava flow, and there is a risk that the Suðurstrandarvegur road could be inundated,” Víðir Reynisson, Director of Civil Protection, tells mbl.is.

“Suðurstrandarvegur road is in danger, as it’s only 500 meters before the lava tongues reach the road. We closed a hole that was at the defense walls. It was filled last night and if this starts, we’ve at least closed it, and then we’ve got as much of the defense walls ready as possible. If this starts, then Suðurstrandavegur road will go under,” Reynisson says, adding that it was never planned to defend it.

If lava amount continues to flow into the lava pond something will give

He says that the lava flow is more distinctly south and a large lava pond has been formed there.

“Experience shows us that the banks will crumble if it continues to flow into the pond, and then the lava flows to the sea quite quickly. On the other side, the end of the lava tongue is about 100 meters from the Njarðvík pipeline. It doesn’t seem to be as much flow there now,” says Reynisson.

He adds that work has been done to protect the Njarðvík pipeline. Material has been put over all repairs and HS Orka has started preparing for the night to send colder water through the pipeline.

“We know that if lava flows over it, it will heat up, and the idea is to cool it down inside as well. Everything is ready for that, and we have done everything that can be done. We just have to see how it goes,” he says.

Electricity was taken from Grindavík town last night but it was restarted just before 2 am.

“This is about the fact that to keep the hot water production in Svartsengi fully operational, it needs electricity, and while there was a risk that we would have to take out the Svartsengi line, which is at the edge of the Njarðvík pipeline, it could have had an impact. Now, backup power has been restored.”

It was not possible to fly over the eruption site

It was not been possible to fly over the eruption site this morning but Reynisson says it will be examined later in the day.

“It’s a boring weather in the area. We have powerful drones that we’ve had problems with due to the weather. We’ll wait until noon to get some better visuals, but there’s a control center near Grindavík that monitors and gives us information about the lava flows and measurements.”

Reynisson says he hopes that the eruption will behave similarly to the last eruption. According to Víðir, the natural scientists assess that the eruption has been significantly reduced and he hopes that in the next few hours, it will be possible to see that the eruption is under control.