(BIVN) – Scientists will continue to monitor and report on Hawaiʻi Island’s volcanic activity during the partial shutdown of the federal government.

The United States Geological Survey, which falls under the Department of Interior, expects 100 percent of its workforce (8,032) to participate in the orderly shutdown process. “The majority of the workforce can accomplish these activities within a 4-6 hour window which includes securing facilities, completing personnel and financial processes, cancelling meetings/events, and shutting down non-excepted IT operations,” says a plan written in case of the absence of an appropriation, updated in September 2018. “The USGS has approximately 450 employees that will be on-call for protection of life and property, especially response to a natural disaster for which the USGS is mandated to respond or assist in managing water, biological, geological, geographical, and other natural resources. Mostly, these personnel are at volcano observatories, geologic hazard science centers, water science centers, and the EROS Data Center, however they may include other personnel, such as support staff, depending upon the natural hazard event,” the Interior department plan says.

Friday night, the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory assured the public on the volcanic Island of Hawaiʻi with this message posted to its website:

In the event of a federal government shutdown, the Volcano Hazard Program and all five U.S. Volcano Observatories will continue to issue updates, warnings, and notifications through the usual channels, including websites, email, and social media. The volcano monitoring data on this website will be kept up to date and all monitoring instruments will continue to be operational. Static website content will not be updated until further notice and information may be outdated.

Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park will “remain as accessible as possible while still following all applicable laws and procedures” during the partial shutdown of the federal government, park officials announced Friday evening.