There is one piece of advice that is important for both local and visiting salmon fishermen in Ranelva. “When the sirens go, get out of the water.” The enormous amounts of rainfall in Nordland have caused several rivers to boil over. And when the water came gushing on Wednesday afternoon, no sirens went off – as it should have done. As a result, the salmon fishermen did not receive any warning either. Salmon fisherman William Rydland was fishing on a sandbank about a kilometer below Reinforsen power plant on Wednesday afternoon. He concentrates on fishing, and does not immediately notice that the water in the river has started to rise. – When I waded out onto the sandbar, the water reached my knees. When I waded back the water reached above my chest. At the same time, the current also became stricter. – There was nothing else to do but to swim to get ashore. I managed to sail down until I was able to stand on the bottom again. With both poles overhead. – Fortunately, I wear a wading belt on my trousers, so that the whole trousers were not filled with water. Things went a little calmer for him last weekend, when William Rydland got this rug. Photo: Jim Henrik Olsen The day after the incident, Rydland has made up his mind. He thinks it is serious that the notification system is not working. – It could quickly become dangerous. The current was strong and the river rose well over half a meter in the time I was standing there. Upset – What happened is very dramatic, says an upset Ragnhild Brennslett. She is a board member of the Ranavassdraget Fisheries Management. – I am very glad that it was not a visiting fisherman. We avoided the “worst case” in that there were local fishermen who were in and around the river, says Brennslett. The tapping at the locks at Reinforsen power plant was started cautiously. The river rose from 40 cubic meters per second in the morning to 1,100 cubic meters the following morning. Photo: Tonje Vonstad The Ranelva is a popular river for recreational fishermen and is rich in salmon and trout. The river is Nordland’s second longest. 11 kilometers above the outlet is the Reinforsen power plant, which utilizes the 25.6 meter drop in the Reinforsen waterfall. Statkraft: – Sorry Power plant manager Marianne Fineide in Statkraft i Rana and the Korgen area states that it was the predicted extreme flood that caused the locks to be opened. When the bottling started, the siren system that warns of “danger in the river” was started as normal. REINFORCEMENT: The river is very rough when it flows at 600-700 cubic meters per second, says Ragnhild Brennslett in the Ranavassdraget Fisheries Management. Photo: Tonje Vonstad – It turned out that it was unstable. A maintenance check on Thursday showed that it was then completely out of order. Fineide says it is deeply regrettable that the fishermen did not receive the warning. The plant has been repaired, and now a new plant is to be installed. Will complain about Ragnhild Brennslett in the Ranavassdraget Fisheries Authority believes what happened is dramatic, and says she will complain about this to Statkraft with a copy to NVE. – Usually the fishermen stand up to their waist when they cast a fly. It is only luck that the fishermen did not sink into the river. Had there been any visitors who did not understand the drawing until it was too late, I don’t know what could have happened.
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Statkraft opened the locks in Ranelva without warning – fishermen had to swim ashore – news Nordland
