On Friday morning, there was a large rock slide across county road 5683, between Rørvika and Haukedal, in Sunnfjord. Haukedalsvegen is the only road in and out of Haukedalen. The inhabitants of Haukedalen are completely confined as a result of the landslide. This has consequences for children in kindergarten, primary school and secondary school. They don’t make it home. At least one nursery school child and eleven pupils at Holsen school and kindergarten have been affected. – The students are at school. They got past the landslide before it happened, says Andreas Fonn Macsik in Sunnfjord municipality. The junior high school students who live in Haukedalen go to Halbrend school in Førde. They won’t make it home today either. – We are very happy that the children got to school and kindergarten before the landslide, because the school road is prone to landslides, says principal Per Inge Seime. Family on the “right” side stands up There are 92 people living in Haukedalen. Four children go to kindergarten at Holsen, eleven to primary school and six to secondary school. Three students go to upper secondary school. Macsik says that the principal has initiated measures at the school. The staff has been strengthened to take care of the students until they can get home. – The pupils are well looked after at Holsen school, says Macsik. – When can they get home? – It will be when the road is opened and cleared again, I would think. For now, the message from the National Roads Administration is that it will only happen on Saturday at 1pm. Several of the students have grandparents, friends and family on the “right” side of the race that stands up. In addition, the school has offered that the students can stay there until a solution is found. The headmaster has a dialogue with the homes to clarify how they will take care of the children. – When we sent out messages this morning, we had a thought that it might take a long time, says the headmaster. He says that they now have control over what all the children should do. – It looks like it’s going safe and well for everyone. The rockslide has occurred just outside the tunnel mouth. Photo: Lillian Søviknes Birkeland On Friday at 2pm, a geologist visited the area. On Saturday, the plan is to flush the mountainside with a helicopter to clean the rest, as there are rocks on the mountainside that are moving. Driving into the landslide Veronica Kvamme Myhren was on her way to work in Førde when she discovered the boulders right on the outside of the tunnel. – I was actually about to drive into it. I got all the way to the landslide before I saw it was there, and then I just had to turn around and drive home again, she says. – I think I got there about right after the landslide, so it’s a bit scary to think what would have happened if I had left a little earlier, says the 21-year-old. Principal Seim is also worried about the landslide-prone road. – I also understand students who can be disturbed when it is like that. This was just outside the tunnel opening. Photo: Veronica Kvamme Myhren – The stones are coming steadily After news spoke to Myhren on Friday morning, the road continued to slide. – It is still raging in there, so stones are coming down steadily from the mountain side, says traffic operator Jørgen Bødtker. The road is currently closed until Saturday at 3 p.m., waiting for a cleaning team to start cleaning. – There must have been two large stones of about a cubic meter that have come down, in addition to a number of pebbles. There are quite a lot of rocks and trees in the mouth, and there are quite large masses that have come down, Bødtker continues at 12 noon on Friday. According to Bødtker, the road has little traffic. But for Lillian Søviknes Birkeland, who, like Myhren, lives in Haukedalen, it creates problems getting to work. – There has never been such a rock slide here. Sometimes, of course, ice or rocks fall into the road, but this was actually a bit dramatic. And this time there were very large stones. Greater landslide danger at the moment Veronica Kvamme Myhren lives in Gjerland in Haukedalen, and is now confined due to the landslide. – I will not be afraid to drive on the road again, but I hope that they secure the mountain side well so that there are no more landslides there in the near future. With blue skies and brilliant sunshine, it was extra surprising that there was a landslide right there, Myhren thinks. – I didn’t think today would be the day it went downhill. You tend to think that the slide starts when it’s really heavy or when things start to thaw, so I wouldn’t have imagined it today when it’s gloriously sunny and sub-zero outside. But there is actually a greater risk of landslides due to the temperature changes at the moment, according to Bødtker at the Swedish Road Traffic Agency. – On a general basis, we are in a time where we have frost at night, the humidity explodes and the sun often comes during the day and dries out what holds rock and other objects on the mountainside. After all, we are in a time where the danger of racism is generally a bit greater.
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Rockslide blocks Haukedalen in Sunnfjord – Children can’t get home from school – news Vestland
