LATEST: Crews from Voss fire protection, technical services and the Civil Defense are still pumping water out of Voss cultural center, Voss courthouse and Voss youth school. This work will continue as long as necessary. Work is also underway to clear roads and other municipal infrastructure. This is what the area below the train station at Voss looks like on Saturday morning. Photo: Kenneth Kleppe / UAS Voss The flume peak has passed at Voss The water level has risen overnight at Voss, which is the town in Vestland that has been hardest hit by flume due to heavy rain. But in the morning hours on Saturday, it seems that one has passed the flaum top. The football pitch and the campsite at Voss are under water. Photo: Kenneth Kleppe / UAS Voss – The water level has stopped rising, says operations manager Tore Andre Brakstad in the Vestland police district to news. Damage to a number of buildings has already been reported. According to the operations manager, the cultural center is among the buildings that are said to have been damaged. During the night, they tried to limit the damage by securing with sandbags to keep the water out. Anne Lene Bråthen filmed a boat that came with the river from Evanger to Bolstad on Saturday morning. – There is almost as much water here now as there was in 2014. I think we will see similar damage after this flood too, she says. Probably the worst flume in modern times The flume on Evanger is probably the worst in modern times, says Tor Halvorsen, chief of staff in Voss Herad, Saturday morning. For Voss, it is the second worst embarrassment in modern times. Vangsvatnet peaked between 04 and 05 on Saturday morning, about 30 cm below the level of the 2014 flood, reports the municipality in a press release. This is how it looks on Voss Saturday morning. – Voss here asks everyone to be careful, there is still very high water flow and the risk of landslides. It will still be many hours before the water recedes. It is only then that one will be able to uncover all the damage caused by the flood, writes the municipality. Voss mayor Hans-Erik Ringkjøb tells news on Saturday morning that they do not have a total overview in kroner and dollars of the damage the flume has done. Nils Bjarne Stabæk, librarian in Voss is down in the basement of the cultural center. – It wasn’t as bad as I thought, he says. Photo: Sjur mikal dolve / news – But there is major material damage in private and public buildings. It will cost many millions, he says to news. During the embarrassment in 2014, there were damages worth half a billion kroner. Damage to buildings and football pitches In the center of Voss there are two football pitches under water, probably completely destroyed. That’s what Hallgeir Finbråten, day-to-day manager of Fbk Voss, says. Voss mayors Hans-Erik Ringkjøb (left) and Hallgeir Finbråten, day-to-day manager of FBK Voss, see that there is major damage in several places, among other things on these football pitches. Photo: Sjur Mikal Dolve / news – I hope we have good insurance, he says, and says that it will cost up to twelve million to build two new lanes. At the cultural center, the water has seeped into the basement of the building, and water is now being pumped out from here. Librarian Nils Bjarne Stabæk has been to the site. – It wasn’t as bad as I thought, he says. This is how it looks at Evanger Saturday morning. Photo: Rune Skjold Fredriksen Rune Skjold Henriksen in Evanger is shaken by how the forces of nature have ravaged. – Everything is under water. It looks really bad, very dramatic. Many cellars here are overcrowded, says the Bergen resident who came to Evanger yesterday. He got his jaw dropped when he came driving: – Suddenly there was 30-50 cm of surface water in the road. This is going to be intense, I thought. When he came to the center of Evanger, he was a system man across the bridge before it closed. Worked full time last night Especially in Voss herad and in Aurland it has been full blown. In Voss herad, fire crews worked hard last night and are still doing so. Fire crews have been working on blasts last night in many places. Here from Voss on Friday evening. Photo: Monika Bjørsvik The Norwegian Civil Defense has also contributed. – We do not know how extensive the damage is after the accident. It’s something we have to look at when it gets light, says Stian Kvam in the 110 centre. No people were evacuated last night at Voss. Now fire crews are doing what they can to help people who have had water enter their houses. He does not know how many houses are involved. The situation in Odda, Eidfjord and in Aurland calmed down on Friday evening. By then the resistance had stopped and the fire crew had control, says Kvam. The insurance company If reports that they have received 15 claims following the disaster in Western Norway. – There is an influx of insurance customers reporting vandalism in the morning hours today. We expect the number of injuries to rise considerably in the coming days, says If’s communications manager Sigmund Clementz in a press release. Fearing an avalanche – The vegans who are closed now will remain so until further notice. We don’t expect that more roads will be closed due to the flood, since it is on its way back, says Kjetil Larsen at the Road Traffic Centre. However, he believes that more roads may be closed due to mudslides. – Now the soil is so saturated that there could be a danger of it. Our encouragement is therefore the same as yesterday: If you don’t have to go out, then wait until the water recedes and we get better control. On the main road E16, there are several places where the road is impassable. In particular, there is a lot of water in Bulken-Voss where the water covers both lanes. – There is also less wood, debris and rapids floating there, so here the water must first sink and then the road must be cleared and checked first. But first it must be light outside, says Larsen.
ttn-69
See the photo from the air – this is what Voss looks like after the embarrassment – news Vestland
