– It feels unfair to be saved. Several have not recovered, and I am very lucky to still be alive, says Aud-Margaret Vamsæter Kogstad to Romerikes Blad.
It was VG who first told the dramatic story of the 64-year-old woman who clung to the mattress when the avalanche struck, before she sailed through the crater. Wearing only her nightgown, she sat up and listened to the screams of the others.
– I thought it was an earthquake
– I woke up when the house shook and I thought it was an earthquake. I clung to the mattress, and all of a sudden the whole wall of the house slammed open. I didn’t understand anything until I felt like I had snow on my face, Aud-Margaret Vamsæter Kogstad tells the newspaper.
Then the house collapsed and she was sent speeding off the second floor of her apartment at Ask in Gjerdrum.
– On my thick Jensen mattress, I navigated to the bottom of the avalanche. It was completely absurd.
When Kogstad hit rock bottom, he brought power around him from all sides. Using the mattress topper, he made a kind of cave at the bottom of the avalanche.
– The mattress saved my life. I like to advertise it.
Slideshow
New photos show huge extent of landslide
Five neighbors missing
Aud-Margaret sat in her makeshift cave for nearly three hours before being picked up by a helicopter.
– In the helicopter I met two of my neighbors from the house. A couple who also lived in the house were on vacation, while five of my neighbors are still missing. They lived there in two of the apartments.
Aud-Margaret Vamsæter Kogstad is doing well under the conditions.
– I’m very upset, but otherwise I’m fine. I live temporarily with friends. I will have to do that until I get a permanent place to live. Now I am excited about what insurance offers me in terms of support and opportunities. I lost absolutely everything I had, but it is completely insignificant. I saved my life I sympathize with those who still miss their loved ones.
– Will live in the mountains
Kogstad was born and raised in Gjerdrum. She had lived alone in one of the housing units in Nystulia for ten years when the unreal happened.
– It has been a wonderfully nice place to live, without problems of any kind. I have been happy every time I have returned home to my apartment. I still want to live in Gjerdrum, which is my hometown, but I want to live in the mountains. Enough is enough, says Aud-Margaret Vamsæter Kogstad.
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- Ten people He is still missing after the landslide in Ask in the municipality of Gjerdrum, from night until Wednesday. No one has been confirmed dead, but the police hypothesis is that these ten are in the area of the landslide.
- Nine buildings with a total of 31 residential units and six garage houses were seized by the landslide, police said. First, it was reported that 14 addresses were covered by the landslide. Just before 3 p.m. on Thursday, parts of another house collapsed. Several houses are completely on the verge of the avalanche and it is taken into account that more people can crash.
- The fire brigade claims that some of the buildings have moved 400 meters in the avalanche.
- Police confirm that several people were rescued from the area of the landslide by helicopter on Wednesday. How many are unknown. From night to Thursday, the Dalmatian Zajka was rescued and on Thursday night, another dog was rescued from the avalanche.
- The landslide is a rapid clay landslide that is spread over a larger area. These landslides can occur when fast clay is overloaded. Then it loses its strength and flows like liquid.
- Due to the unstable soil masses, exploration teams have not had many opportunities to physically descend into landslide areas. Exploration work is mainly done with drones and helicopters. On Thursday morning, there were ground crews inside the red zone and they went through two houses in the southern part of the avalanche, without any finds. On Friday morning, rescuers, police dogs and so-called USAR teams are back in the area of the avalanche to investigate the remains of the houses. These are crews that are trained to safely carry out rescues in buildings, ditches, facilities, landslides and the like, totally or partially collapsed.
- Ten people have been reported injured, with varying degrees of damage. One of the cases is characterized by being serious. 1000 people have been evacuated.
- On Thursday afternoon, it emerged that in an area two kilometers north of central Ask, near the Kokstad farm, 46 new people were evacuated after cracks formed in the ground. The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate does not see any connection between the incidents.
