– A large boulder has fallen from the landslide area approx. 850 meters above sea level and down over the E16 and into the sea. One carriageway on the road is gone. Since then, there has been more fallout, and there is still a lot of movement in a large boulder that is still standing up in the landslide area, says the mayor of Aurland, Trygve Skjerdal, to news. Broken power lines ignited the terrain. It was at one o’clock on Saturday night that the slide occurred at Fretheim between Flåm and Aurland, deep in the Nærøyfjorden. The masses of rock took high-voltage power lines with them, which led to fires starting in the terrain on the mountain side. The fires caused a lot of smoke, but should have extinguished themselves within two hours. Large parts of the municipality also lost power, but it is now back on. – There is no indication that people or cars have been taken by the landslide, says operations manager Jørgen Ommedal in the West police district. The municipality is now in practice divided in two, which has, among other things, created challenges for the home nursing service in the municipality and the shipping of food and medicine. A boat connection has now been established between the two towns. Most dramatic is the situation for eleven people who live near the place where the landslide occurred. At four o’clock last night, these were ordered to be evacuated for fear that more could break loose from the avalanche area up in the mountain. This is what the avalanche area looks like 850 meters above Fretheim. A large stone block remains. Photo: Aurland fire protection – Monitored area – This is a monitored mountain area, where there has been documented movement in the mountainside. Many measuring instruments have been set up, and they were also the ones who notified that something was going on. But it may have happened faster than we had thought, says Mayor Skjerdal. The area has been too unsafe for the Swedish Road Administration or emergency services to have been able to access the crash site. Geologists came to the area at 11am to assess the situation. The race site is located between the Fretheim tunnel and the Onstad tunnel. E16 between Flåm and Aurland is completely closed until further notice. There is a detour via Rv 7 over Hardangervidda. The road will probably be closed for quite some time to come. – We probably have to expect that it will take several days before we can travel safely past the crash site, says Mayor Skjerdal. Heard the landslide The landslide came from a great height, crossed the road and went into the sea. John Håland, who lives in Flåm, took this picture of the landslide: Photo: private He says “it rumbled well”. After there was a small landslide in the area earlier on Friday, the Road Administration’s people have been on the scene. A walkway blocked off. They are sure that no people or cars have been lost in the new, larger landslide, says the police operations manager. The police wrote on Twitter at 5.18 that five people had been evacuated after the rockslide in Flåm last night. This figure was adjusted upwards on Saturday at 6 o’clock. Then operations manager Jørgen Ommedal in the West police district told Bergens Tidende that it is now about eleven people who have been evacuated as a “precautionary” measure.
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E16 closed in Flåm after a large rock slide – eleven people have been evacuated – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country
