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A narrow path between the fjord and the mountains is all that is left off the road. On July 23, the landslide that isolated the towns of Toskedal, Gammersvik and Grøsvik, north of Osterøy.
Villagers must now safely walk on ropes past the landslide town in order to reach shops and workplaces on the mainland.
– We can probably do this and. But it’s terribly frustrating, says Sigmund Simmenes.
He is used to having no roads. Toskedalsvegen is particularly prone to landslides and has been closed many times in recent years.
– We just have to live with this, we see that landslides are happening more and more frequently. We are glad that no life has passed. But everything gets complicated when it is like this.
ROAD: Narrow is the way to the world for those who still manage to get here, inst in the fjord.
Photo: ODDGEIR ØYSTESE / NRK
Move to bedroom
About 20 people live in the three small towns.
It is especially difficult for those who have to go to work. Most people have a car on each side of the slide. Then they have to balance themselves beyond the collapsed city.
On dark mornings they must have a beacon. When it rains, they should wear waterproof boots or shoes.
It’s good to get away from hometown until the road is fixed.
Appia Mkoba, Simmenes’s wife, works as a nurse at the Dale Community Center. Now he lives in a dorm to go to work every day.
– Everything is more cumbersome. It requires a lot of planning. But I just have to do what I can to stay positive. It is not possible to be angry all the time.
Mkoba normally has a half hour drive to and from work. Now he is only at home in Toskedal on weekends.
RENTING A ROOM: Appia Mkoba works as a nurse in the Dale Municipal Center, and has had to rent a bedroom there to go to work every day.
Photo: Oddgeir Øystese / NRK
Water with race
Four times a week there is a shuttle boat from Gammersvik to Stamnes. Here he waits for the villagers to go to the shop before being transported back.
On the boat trip, marks from various landslides, both new and old, are seen.
Wide tracks where earth and rock have taken everything on their way to the fjord. One is from July. A little further into the fjord, there are marks from a landslide that occurred in February.
The people of Vaksdal often drive with the window down, listening for the upcoming landslide.
And Toskedalsvegen has proven to be the most vulnerable in the western municipality east of Bergen.
– The road is very dangerous. I don’t know how many landslides there have been, says Olav Gammersvik.
Originally, there were plans to chart the way uphill. But the politicians decided that he should go by the lake. The decision irritates the villagers.
Expensive for the municipality
The sound of the drills hit the mountainside on the other side of the narrow fjord.
Fjellsikrarar is now in full swing to secure the municipal road. At best, it will be open before Christmas.
– Of course, the road will be built like this. There are people here who depend on it.
But Mayor Hege Eide Vik (Sp) knows it will be expensive. They get help from the state, but they don’t know how much. In any case, the municipality of Vaksdal will have a bill of several million crowns.
JOB: There is hope that Toskedalsvegen can be reached for traffic before the new year
Photo: Oddgeir Øystese / NRK
Almost all vegans in Vaksdal are prone to avalanches and landslides are becoming more frequent. Is it then obvious that one can always afford to build all the roads?
– There is no doubt that we have big challenges with landslides, and that we are completely dependent on government help to solve them. But it would be crazy if people couldn’t live in the whole municipality and in the whole District of Norway.
Because it is the future of the village that is about the people of Toskedal.
Naive optimism
– I received more visits from children and grandchildren before the landslide. Now everything is more cumbersome, both for me and for them.
NRK is invited to a blue cake at Solveig Trohjell’s house. She is one of twenty who live in the three villages that have our isolated side this summer.
Sigmund Simmenes is invited and. Despite the disability-related relationship with the rest of the world, the two neighbors cannot imagine moving.
– We have peace, nature and good neighbors. Every time I’ve been to Bergen, I breathe a sigh of relief when I get home here, says Trohjell.
RASE: On July 23, a large mountain range crashed into the fjord.
Photo: ODDGEIR ØYSTESE / NRK
Simmenes was for a long time deputy mayor in Vaksdal.
– I believe that our peoples have a future. But one may have to be naive and stupid to be optimistic in such places.
The expert is not sure of the future.
Municipalities like Vaksdal face tough decisions.
Win Frode Flemsæter. He is a principal investigator at Ruralis, the Norwegian district development research center.
– It may well be that there is a limit on the expenses that can be incurred. At the same time, not having the means to fix the roads has major consequences. Although few people use them.
– It’s about money, but it’s also a value option. It is about us facilitating settlement throughout the country.
If the municipality decided not to repair the road, it would have to buy from the inhabitants. He does not know that this has happened before in Norway.
ISOLATED: Sigmund Simmenes is among about 20 residents who have been isolated for five months.
Photo: Oddgeir Øystese / NRK
Digital infrastructure is just as important
– There are many settlements in Norway that are in a similar situation to those north of Osterøy, even the consequences of landslides are likely to be extreme here.
Flemsæter says that the road connections to larger venues are especially important to people in the districts.
The district investigator says that the construction of a regional center has created a greater need for good roads within and outside the districts. At the same time, he notes that broadband access may be as important as roads for cars.
– Do these peoples have a future?
– It is a difficult question. People live in many of the villages that were in similar situations 30 years ago. Many will probably succeed. But there is no question that municipalities like Vaksdal face tough decisions in the future.
SJØVEGEN: Four times a week, the shore boat comes to take the villagers past the landslide to the tent.
Photo: Oddgeir Øystese / NRK
Population decline
Once upon a time, towns were not as central as they are today. They had a school, a post office, and a store. There was a daily boat scheduled to Bergen.
In 1985 the Kallestadsundet bridge arrived. The car was future. But during these years, the road has been closed six times due to landslides.
And the population has plummeted.
Now there are no families with children in Toskedal, Gammersvik or Grøsvik.
So how is development here, in one of the outskirts of our country?
– Nobody knows what the future holds. Maybe living in places like this will be attractive again. The new technology means that it is not so important where you work from, Simmenes philosophizes.
