El Hierro Volcano (Canary Islands) : Official Red alert at El Hierro

Last update: October 11, 2011 at 3:29 pm by By Armand Vervaeck and James Daniell

La Restinga, El Hierro - panoramio image courtesy Oscar Dorta

Update 11/10 – 15:27 UTC : A few moments ago the following message has appeared on the Emergencia El Hierro website :

RED ALERT – Phase pre-eruptive. It involves the initiation of a preventive evacuation. Make yourself available to the authorities.

FASE PRE-ERUPTIVA. Implica el inicio de la evacuación preventiva. Póngase a disposición de las autoridades.

Update 11/10 – 14:40 UTC : Following Joke Volta, a Dutch artist living on El Hierro and talking to Earthquake-Report.com, a RED ALERT has been declared for La Restinga, the southernmost city on the island. The Yellow Alert remains for the rest of the island. The precautionary measure has been taken as the eruption might come nearer to the island (ER: it is far from sure that such an eruption will occur on the island itself). We have still NO official press report of this measure in Emergencia El Hierro. La Restinga has a population of 547 people.