The Norwegian Meteorological Institute has issued a warning about torrential rain in Eastern Norway on Sunday afternoon and evening. Siri Blichfeldt Dyrland is the mayor of Midt-Telemark municipality, which is again in the danger zone for another downpour. – We are concerned considering that we have just experienced a serious incident, she says. – Concerned The mayor is watching closely now. It has been less than two weeks since heavy rainfall and floods caused enormous damage in her municipality. Around 350 people were evacuated. Roads collapsed and bridges were destroyed. Cabin owners were isolated. Two campsites were badly hit. – What we saw in the previous incident was that there was a lot of rain locally. We saw how quickly a flood can occur. That is why we are of course concerned, she says. Siri Blichfeldt Dyrland, mayor of Midt-Telemark. Photo: Ken Markus Christensen / news The municipality has its own watch over water and sewage, which now follows extra closely. Crisis management will be notified quickly if there is a lot of rain in the area, she explains. – The worst that can happen to us is another event with extreme rainfall. We have a lot of material damage now that we are trying to get an overview of, says the mayor. – Hope we don’t experience something like that again. She fears it will be more serious than last time, if there is new rainfall in the areas that were hit by the flood in July. – If rainfall were to fall on exactly the same area, it would perhaps cause further damage. It will be very unfortunate, says Dyrland. Both private and municipal roads and bridges are still destroyed. – We haven’t been able to fix the damage we had, she says. Eikavegen in Bø was destroyed. The road is still not repaired. Photo: Theodor Aasland Valen / news The campsites have opened and people are back in the flood-affected areas. The municipality will not consider evacuating before a possible torrential downpour. – We will look at it. Torrential rain can occur in various areas and certainly does not need to occur in the same place as before, says Dyrland. The municipality will make quick decisions if they become concerned, she explains. – Now I really hope that we will not experience something like that again, she says, and emphasizes that she does not wish this on other municipalities either. Meteorological Institute On-duty meteorologist at the Meteorological Institute Terje Alsvik Walløe says that the forecast for torrential rain is uncertain. – There are many people in the area who do not want to experience torrential rain tomorrow. There are local heavy showers that can occur especially tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow evening, he says. Terje Alsvik Walløe, state meteorologist at the Meteorological Institute. Photo: Tore Meek / NTB scanpix Locally, 10-20 millimeters are expected in the strongest showers within one hour, says the meteorologist. This can cause local flooding and stormwater. It will not cause large water level increases in larger rivers, believes the meteorologist. – It can cause heavy downpours in some areas. In practice, most people will find that it comes quite a bit. Walløe wants to reassure the population in Midt-Telemark municipality. Despite the fact that there was no warning of torrential rain when the municipality was hit by floods in July, he is not worried that Bø will be hit again now. – This is a different type of situation. Then there was large-scale rainfall and Bø received 80 millimeters of rain. We do not expect anything similar this time. – This is not a dramatic warning at all. This is a summer phenomenon, concludes Walløe. Published 03.08.2024, at 16.18
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