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The storm in Nordland and Troms Tuesday night triggered landslides, downed trees and closed roads. On Tuesday morning, four homes were evacuated in the Balsfjord.
A landslide has occurred at Storsteinnes in the Balsfjord municipality in Troms. Police report that four homes have been evacuated after the landslide, in accordance with a precautionary principle.
– Large bodies of water have washed away adjacent parts of the soil. Now we have to wait until geologists have seen the area, to see if it is safe for residents to move home, or what will be the next move, operations manager Rune Nilsen in the Troms police district tells VG at 08.15 .
Geologists are expected to survey the site during the day.
– No wonder soil masses give way
According to the police, one of the four houses are residences. The occupants of the four households must be taken into account.
Hege Brobakk Nysted lives right next door and is also waiting for the message that he must evacuate.
– I called work and said that I had not come now, but that I am working here, he says. When the nursing homes were evacuated, Nysted offered them shelter in the nursing home.
– I work in the profession myself, so I opened the house for residents and employees until they find other places for them, he says.
Operations manager Rune Nilsen says Troms police are no longer prepared as a result of the storm, but that they work closely with municipalities, Veivesenet and other emergency services.
– We are well equipped and the weather forecast looks better throughout the day. At the same time, the soil is soggy, so it’s no wonder the soil masses give way, he says.
Ambulance hit landslide
John Vanvw Johansen was on his way home from Narvik to Tromsø on Tuesday night when an ambulance in the storm with blue lights passed him on E8 in Ramfjord.
A little further down the road he encountered the ambulance again, then it had collapsed and a tire had been destroyed. He had to be rescued.
– Fortunately, things went well with both the patient and the ambulance staff. “I’ve worked as a traffic driver before and started redirecting traffic on the site,” Johansen tells VG over the phone.
Photo: John Vanvw Johansen
The road where the landslide occurred is a main traffic lane for commuters heading to Tromsø. Therefore, there is usually a lot of traffic on the section, explains Johansen.
He stayed there until the road was reopened, and he was able to tackle the remaining 23 kilometers to Tromsø himself.
Shortly after 08.00, the police report that the road has finally been reopened. By then, the landslide had been cleared and the site examined by a geologist.
– The landslide has disappeared because the ground cannot carry the large amounts of water. There is so much rupture and so much precipitation that we have chosen to keep the road closed, operations manager Eirik Kileng in the Troms police district tells VG.
– Like a busy winter day
– It has been like a busy winter day, you can safely say, and there is a lot of precipitation that creates problems. There is a lot of wind and a lot of rain, says traffic operator Bente Nyland in Vegtrafikksentralen Nord to VG just after 05.30 on Tuesday morning.
The Norwegian Public Roads Administration, among other things, has moved a large number of felled trees on the roads of Nordland and Troms.
Strong winds have closed Fylkesvei 82 over Kjølhagen in Andøy municipality.
The Boreal bus company reports that closed roads and landslides may have consequences for school transportation and public transportation beyond Tuesday. They ask travelers to follow the diversion reports on reisnordland.no.
– There has been a very strong wind – the gusts have been 47 to 48 meters per second, says Nyland.
On Monday, debris from Tropical Storm “Sally” devastated much of Nordland and Troms. Up to 100 millimeters of precipitation had been announced in advance for a day and alerts for floods and landslides have been sent out. By late Monday night, the center of the storm had barely reached Troms.
– The worst awaits us in Troms. In the coming hours, there will be strong local winds inland and along the coast, state meteorologist Kjersti Strand told VG on Monday night.
The strongest wind is south of the low pressure center and an orange hazard warning was sent Monday for very strong wind gusts, up to 30-35 meters per second. An orange warning has also been sent for a lot of rain in Troms.
Encourage motorists to keep up
Uusimaa in Vegtrafikksentralen Nord encourages motorists to follow the traffic reports beyond Tuesday. In several places in its catchment area, it has also snowed on Tuesday night: on the E6 over Saltfjellet, Riksvei 77 on Graddis and on Fylkesvei 813 on Beiarfjellet.
– If the weather is very bad and there is a strong wind, there is always danger with loose objects. Large amounts of precipitation are scary in landslide-prone areas too, and you should always do a weather assessment before driving, she says.
Troms police have also had several weather-related assignments through Tuesday night, and they expect the storm to continue to increase during the day.
– For the moment, things are going well, but we will have to look further, Operations Manager Eirik Kileng tells VG at 05.15 am
Among other things, they moved to Ramfjord after the landslide over parts of the E8.
– Otherwise we have some trees that have collapsed and some power lines that are gone. There are also some closed roads around.
HEAVY PRECIPITATION: Large amounts of precipitation led to a significant rise in the water level in several rivers on Monday. Photo: KIM ANDRÉ HAUGAN SCHEI
Parts of sports facilities demolished
At 9:00 pm on Monday night, Troms police were notified that parts of the wall of a sports facility in Bardufoss had been knocked down.
– In connection with a repair we are doing on the roof, we have removed parts of the roof. This, combined with the wind, blew away part of the north wall tonight, Bardufoss Storhall general manager Erling Andreassen tells VG.
Andreassen was in the hallway when parts of the wall were ripped off.
– There was training inside the room when this happened and for many it may have been a very unpleasant experience, he says.
It says that no one was injured during the incident.
– There is a lot of material damage. But we haven’t received an overview of the scope, he says.
Evacuated homes
In Nordland, around 1,200 people in Rana municipality are isolated.
Nordland police also had to evacuate five houses due to high water levels in the area. Evacuees are cared for in hotels.
– It’s not pleasant when people have to pack their bags and leave, but we are taking no chances, said the operations manager in the Nordland police district, Kai Eriksen.
Due to heavy rains, the Ranelva river overflowed and landslides have occurred in several places. This led to the closure of the E6 at Storforshei north of Helgeland in Nordland. The Ranelva divided Norway in two.
At 9 pm on Monday night, the road traffic control center reports that the road is open again.
NORWAY DIVIDED INTO TWO: Large amounts of precipitation flooded the E6 at Storforshei north of Helgeland in Nordland on Monday afternoon. Photo: Lisa Marie Tønder
