The case in summary: – An avalanche on Reinøya in Troms in March killed two people and destroyed a residential building and a barn with 140 goats. – The Red Cross believes that the evacuation of the 30 remaining residents took too long. – A report from the State Administrator in Troms and Finnmark are evaluating the course of events and the cooperation between rescue teams, municipalities and authorities.- The report suggests that public notification via SMS should contain enough information for residents to self-evacuate or wait to be evacuated.- Karlsøy municipality has evaluated its crisis management during the landslide and sees a need for better routines for public notification. – The police believe that the time taken was within what must be expected in such a demanding situation, and that the evacuation was carried out in a safe manner. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAi. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. On the afternoon of 31 March this year, rescue crews went to Reinøya in Troms after reports of a large avalanche. The landslide had swept a residential house and barn with 140 goats into the sea. The married couple Rolf Harald and Lisbeth Annie Albertsen died in the accident. The risk of landslides on the island was extremely high, according to the police, who decided to evacuate the 30 permanent residents in the area. In retrospect, the evacuation took too long, the Red Cross believes. This is according to a new evaluation report that the State Administrator in Troms and Finnmark has prepared. (Pdf: Evaluation report) The report deals with the course of events and the cooperation between rescue teams, municipalities and authorities in connection with the extreme weather this winter. During Palm weekend, a total of five people died in three different landslides in Troms. The report lists a number of learning points and input from the various events: Excerpt from the State Administrator’s report on the landslides in Troms 31 March – 2 April The Red Cross experienced that the time from meeting at Tromsø Airport (meeting place) until the residents were safely evacuated on Reinøya took too long time. The Civil Defense learns that they have a job to do in making their capacities known, as in several cases they do not become relevant until they make themselves available. The police find that the use of several speech groups increases the complexity of the operation. It is not certain that the police will be able to operate all the speech groups when such a situation arises. Kåfjord and Nordreisa municipalities state that they have an overview of residents in vulnerable areas, but that the challenge arises when landslides occur in areas that are not vulnerable areas. The Red Cross states that responsibilities and roles/tasks in such avalanche incidents should be clarified between the National Rescue Center (HRS), Local Rescue Center (LRS) and municipalities. Population notification from the municipalities via SMS should have sufficient information for residents to self-evacuate or wait to be evacuated. The Norwegian Civil Defense was not able to establish a good enough dialogue with the operations center at the police in Troms. The district manager had to attend in person to coordinate between the police and the Civil Defense. The snow observations agree relatively well with the danger warnings. The amount of snow drifts is difficult to quantify, and it is also challenging to assess what level of danger the combination of snowfall and snow drifts entails, also apart from avalanche danger. To news, head of landslides in the Red Cross, Per Inge Belt, elaborates that it took over five hours from the time they were notified of the landslide, until the last residents on Reinøya were safely evacuated. – In the name of hindsight, it is quite a long time. And especially with the prevailing conditions, where we considered the avalanche danger to be increasing that day, says Belt. Thought it was too dangerous to enter the area At 14:50 the message came about the landslide on Reinøya. The Red Cross moved out in a helicopter for what was initially a rescue operation. – When we come out here, it is very obvious that there has been a very big landslide. We see that it is safe for us to move in the avalanche masses. But on both sides outside the avalanche masses there is a no-go zone, says Belt. Red Cross specialist for landslides, Per Inge Belt, believes the evacuation on Reinøya took too long. Photo: Kari Anne Skoglund / news At first there was full focus on search and rescue. – And then, in an ideal situation, we want evacuation and rescue to be able to take place in parallel. But here there were many events that happened at the same time, and many people were at work. Eventually it became clear that no one else was missing. But the landslide had blocked the way into Grøtnesdalen, and there were people on both the east and west sides of the landslide. Since the crews did not dare to go ashore to start evacuation, they used the lifeboat. They used searchlights, and called out from the public address system on the boat that people had to pull down to the shore to be evacuated. Only after 8 p.m. were the last people out of the village. The landslide on Reinøya was around 200 meters wide. Photo: August Hansen / news One of the learning points is that population alerts from the municipalities via SMS should have enough information for residents to self-evacuate, or wait to be evacuated. Karlsøy municipality has evaluated its crisis management during the landslide and sees a need for better routines for public notification. – When an incident of this magnitude occurs, the need for information is great. A combination of telephone, internet and social media is most effective considering that you are going to reach residents of all ages, says municipal director Leif Hovden. The police: – Challenging situation The avalanche incident on Reinøya on 31 March occurred in an area that was not subject to special avalanche monitoring. Police inspector Odd Morten Pettersen says they were dependent on receiving advice from avalanche specialists, in order to know where people should be evacuated. In addition to boats, helicopters were also used to retrieve people, Pettersen says. Photo: Petter Strøm Following NVE’s recommendation, the police chief decided at 17:30 that people in the area from Sæterelva to Grøtnesdalselva should be evacuated. – The time spent seems to be within what one must expect in such a demanding situation. Along the way, an ongoing assessment of risk for residents and emergency personnel was carried out so that the evacuation could be carried out in a safe manner. This involved the use of both a helicopter and a boat to avoid traffic through the most landslide-prone areas. According to the police operation log, the last person was evacuated at 20:25. – The evaluation of this incident has not identified new learning points for the police, says Pettersen.
ttn-69
The Red Cross believes the evacuation time was too long during the Reinøya landslide – news Troms and Finnmark
