– I was sitting on the corner sofa there five minutes before – news Vestland

– I sat and watched a film. Then I had to drive a trip into the village. I got into the car, and my son got out straight after. He backed up twenty metres, then he said “there’s a rockfall”, says Steinar Ljones (52). He and his son Anders Sorteberglien Ljones (25) had a dramatic Wednesday evening, while the roommate was at work. The family lives close to a steep mountainside, in Vallavikvegen in Ulvik down by the Hardangerfjord. – I opened the car door and said: “No run me! Down in the travel hideout!” Sat on the sofa They went down to the basement there, and lay down against the wall at the back of the building. – There is a completely new concrete wall. I thought that if stones came, they would bounce over. Then there was a terrible crash. The stream went. And I think more stones came. After a while they got up. Anders ran into the house and fetched the dog, which was inside. They saw that a boulder of 5-6 cubic meters – as big as a van – had hit the house on one corner. – The stone had cracked open the entire outer wall, which was just sagging. Five minutes earlier I was lying on the sofa in the corner just inside there watching a film, says the father. Neither people nor animals were injured when the landslide hit the farm. Photo: Ulvik fire protection – It was terrible to see the extensive damage, says Anders. New crash Then they took the car and drove away. They notified the police at around 19.30. Newspaper Hordaland told about the incident first. – We have 70 sheep in the barn there. The stone hit the house, and rolled down and landed two or three meters from the barn. The two stood down by a boat a few hundred meters away, before the fire brigade and the police arrived. – They drove up and looked. Then came a new race. So there was some action. There has been a lot of snow in Ulvik during the day. The police say there may be a risk of new landslides in the area. Vallavikvegen is therefore closed from the Torgilsberg tunnel to Tveitastrondi. Damage has only been reported to this one house, but in addition to that family, ten other people have been evacuated. They didn’t have time to think much when they heard the crash coming. – Some stones have come down on the slopes before, but not on the houses since the 17th century. I have kept in the back of my mind that something could happen at some point, and have many times thought that it might be safest under the travel agency. But it was just luck that we chose to run the right way this time, says the father. – We were lucky, says the son. The largest stone that came down to the farm was probably over five cubic metres. Photo: Ulvik fire service



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