It was actually a forgettable day in July 2019. Ingar Sægrov didn’t want anything special. He got up, he drank coffee, and he looked at the weather. The summer was unusually hot and dry. Several times it hit 30 degrees. But this day there was a change, and dark clouds soon floated in over the mountain landscape of Jølster. Ingar said he would return home and have dinner with his wife Sissel Gjesdal Sægrov at 6pm. Then they said “have it”, and Ingar drove west. Close to the road and Ingar lay the deep and long Jølstravatnet, the second largest lake in Western Norway. Signalet – It was a lovely day, says Charlotte Sægrov, Ingar’s daughter. Charlotte Sægrov stands by Jølstravatnet in Sunnfjord, not many minutes from her home. Photo: Arne Stubhaug / news That’s why she went up one of her favorite mountains. With her was her daughter Tina and the dog Rusken. From the top they looked down on Lake Jølstravatnet. Steep thousand-meter mountains lay around them on all sides. Still a nice summer day. Then Rusken noticed something. He was breathing heavily and acting strangely. They took no chances, ran down, into the car, into safety. Rusken on tour, not on the same day as in 2019. Photo: Privat Then came what only Rusken had known: The deep sound of a tornado. But still a long way off. Erendet Nede by Jølstravatnet they met dad and grandfather Ingar. He and Charlotte wanted to go to Sunnfjord capital Førde to buy measurements for Tina’s room. Tina’s eighth birthday was just around the corner. Ingar Sægrov was an electrician, cottage field builder, farmer, boat harbor operator, sheep anchor, family man. – He always had time to help me, says Charlotte. Ingar and Charlotte Sægrov, travel partners and father and daughter. Photo: Privat Before they drove, the rain hit them. – You only heard how it thundered on glass and on the roof. It was like the sound of a drum, drrrr! Even in Western Norway, this was unusually strong, but they thought it was a rainstorm that was going to pass. So they stuck to their Førde plan, drove west for 20 minutes, out of the torrential rain, out of the unsafe area. In Førde, people could still mow the lawn and enjoy the summer day. Charlotte went to buy measurements, and Ingar wanted to look for two poles he needed for the cabin he was building. They wanted to hurry to get back home safely. A black wall But directly above Vassenden, a storm had started, unlike anything the Jølstrings had seen before. Ingar and Charlotte drove from Førde … and eastwards, towards Jølstravatnet. Charlotte lived at Vassenden, while Ingar lived at the other end of Jølstravatnet. Against the storm, Ingar and Charlotte drove no. They were just going home. Charlotte to his daughter, Ingar to his wife Sissel. After ten minutes out of Førde, they met the torrential rain again. Play sound It’s like driving into another world (Press to the left of the quote to hear Charlotte tell.) Charlotte asked if it was safe to drive on. Ingar said “Oh my God”, in that dad-has-full-control way. He was the optimist, who thought his daughter could be pessimistic. – Then I said that there is a difference between being positive and negative. I am realistic. On foot They drove a little further, before there was too much water, both from above and on the road. They found an exit, stopped, and then called Ingar home. That dinner at 6 p.m. was going to be difficult, he thought. Sissel Gjesdal Sægrov could not understand what was so bad. Ingar Sægrov lived with his wife Sissel Gjesdal Sægrov at one end of Jølstravatnet, while their daughter Charlotte lived at the other end. Photo: Arne Stubhaug / news – I don’t see the dark clouds, I see completely normal gray weather, she told him. She was now three miles away from her husband and daughter. Play sound – The last time I spoke to him, he said that “now I can’t hear what you’re saying anymore, I think the coverage disappears”. Then I couldn’t talk to him anymore. Ingar and Charlotte did not say that they were going out and walking, on foot. Both were impatient souls. They would rather step into the unknown than stand in the rain. They had each other. This was one of the avalanches Charlotte Sægrov and Ingar Sægrov encountered, from the other side. Photo: news In the roadway there were streaks of water, earth and stone. It came down both directly opposite them and from the sides, where the mountain terrain had let go and tumbled down. Play sound And look now a guy walking in crocs leads you. The water ripped through Charlotte’s feet, and on the sides there was a ditch without railings, and then a river. This was her horror. That nothing would stop her as she fell. Dad Ingar was Charlotte’s support, literally. He went first, she followed. Over landslides, over new rivers that reached their knees. – As long as I was with dad, I was safe. That was always how she thought. Also this day, also when he stood on the other side of the water and she was unsteady when she stepped into the next obstacle. Play sound Dad stands and holds out his hand. Completely ready to receive me, and quickly pull me out of it. Heim He received over every single race. Charlotte was safe with dad. On a flat they encountered a queue of cars. They had gotten over the worst and found a colleague from Charlotte. He could drive them to Vassenden, where Charlotte lived. When they arrived, they saw the damage. Raymond Lillemo at Vassenden filmed this just before he had to run for his life. The large landslide went straight through the construction field. No one was injured, and no residential buildings were destroyed. 166 small and large landslides occurred in the area that day, the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) calculated. The stream had passed in many places, the mobile phone coverage was gone. People had to be evacuated from dangerous places by boat. Many had to be rescued from the E39, where they were stuck between two landslides. The evacuation took several hours. Photo: Anders T. Sunde But until 20.30 no one had been reported dead or injured. No house had been taken by the forces of nature. It was almost unbelievable. Road opening Charlotte and Ingar picked up Tina, Charlotte’s daughter, and got up to the family farm above Vassenden. Home to Charlotte. Ingar and Tina tried to light the wood stove, Charlotte jumped in the shower, in the dark. The road on the north side of Jølstravatnet was closed. There had not been a single slide along the south side, but the police still closed the road, for safety’s sake. At 8.30 pm the weather started to clear, so the police opened the south side road, in consultation with NVE. The road is winding and narrow. If you hit a car, there is a good chance that you will have to stop, back up a bit, and let the oncoming car pass by at a meeting place. Jølstravatnet lies right next to the road on the left. The steep mountain sides to the right. At the end of the road Ingar offered. Play sound Then I hear dad shouting that the road is open. He stood in the doorway. He turned to them, and then he said “have at it” and “happy diving, my girls”. He took the farm truck, turned down from the farm, to the right onto the road. Then it was back home. Right then. Not ten seconds before, not ten seconds after. The landslide There is a video of the landslide. An eyewitness stood on the other side of the lake and filmed. It started as a cloud high up, which then began to move. Those who saw it did not immediately understand that it was a race. Then they understood. Entering from the right, they saw Ingar’s car. Rocks and masses of earth rolled slowly downwards at first, but over a steep slope the slide quickly became wider. Ingar drove to a place where it was not possible to take in what was happening on the mountainside above him. The forest was close to the road and blocked the view. When the landslide was almost down to the road, it was around 90 meters wide, and Ingar drove through a slight right-hand bend, straight into the death trap. The video became important evidence for the police. Charlotte traveled to the police station in Førde to see the film a few days later. She saw the car, with her father inside, slide into the gray masses. Play sound And I imagine that’s when dad looks up. So he bends forward in the car, I can see how he does it. Several witnesses filmed the avalanche that took Ingar Sægrov. This video shows the first seconds after the avalanche had come down to the water’s edge, and it is not possible to see the car that is caught. This is a different video than the one Charlotte Sægrov saw. news does not have access to that video. The search The search, which started almost immediately that same evening, did not help. Charlotte’s desperate search the following morning did not help. She had an out-of-body experience. – I saw myself looking, shouting and screaming, and trying to find dad. She yelled and screamed at the police, and that didn’t help either. Boats glided slowly back and forth over the water, which was colored brown by mud and soil, and men hung over the riprap with large orange reed goggles poking into the water. For over two years they searched for the man and the car. They used a camera, mini submarine and a very special sonar, which scanned the dark seabed. The family made a memorial, right below where the landslide happened. The new road past the crash site was wide enough to park the car on the side. – It is absolutely lovely there. There is no finer grave memorial than Lake Jølstravatnet, says Sissel Gjesdal Sægrov. A little further out, and approximately 200 meters down, is still Ingar Sægrov. Play sound If he had been ten to fifteen seconds faster, he would not have been hit. Sissel Gjesdal Sægrov and his family have created a memorial directly below where the landslide occurred. Photo: Arne Stubhaug / news Afterwards, the police received criticism for having opened the county road, and they regretted that Ingar Sægrov died as a result of the decision.
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Ingar Sægrov died in the last slide during the extreme weather and torrential rain in Jølster summer 2019 – news Vestland
