The local community in shock after the landslide in Gjerdrum – NRK Norway – Summary of news from different parts of the country

– I didn’t think I’d never come back. I think now I could have taken something else with me, says Kristin Hellesø-Knutsen with despair in her voice.

At 4 p.m., she, her teenage son, and the dog woke up from bouldering. They saw that the masses outside in the garden had sunk to a great depth.

At first there was no one on the streets. Just completely dark. No alarms.

– I thought this must be a dream, so we have to go back and see. Was that correct what we saw? Because I’ve never seen a gorge like this before. So when we got back a bit, several neighbors came up to us. Then we calibrate between ourselves. Is this so? Is there such a big hole there? And yes, that was it, says Hellesø-Knutsen.

Then finally more neighbors arrived. Someone had seen someone jump from the second floor of a residence. Then rumors began to circulate about which houses had sunk in the gorge.

– We didn’t lose anyone on the way. Those who were at home, I think we managed to take with us, those of us who live on our street.

Go left!

Hellesø-Knutsen says he started calling people, neighbors, but got no response. He called the police who said they just had to leave. He called his mother who lives in the same area.

– I told him, you have to go to the left and not to the right, because there is the great gorge.

The house next door, on the other side of Hellesø-Knutsen’s garage, had disappeared, had fallen into the gorge.

– I hope and think they were on vacation. I didn’t get them, so I don’t know. But it seemed like at least yesterday they were on vacation.

It was dark and cold when they entered the city hall downtown. The power was gone. Nobody had a mask.

After being searched by the police, they were allowed to go see Hellesø-Knutsen’s aunt, who lives in the same municipality.

I lost all the egg

Only then did his phone start ringing. That was the Volvo alarm. The garage progressed through the avalanche, which continued.

He then received a message from a neighbor who had seen a video of his house also collapsing.

– We have been living there for a year and we have just finished renovating. Have a good time. We were supposed to stay there! Now we have lost everything we own. So it is possible to find out how we are doing, says Hellesø-Knutsen.

Siri Kjærstad is located in the Olavsgaard Hotel. She has also been evacuated.

– Then my mother came and shouted run, run. So we only see black and that the house below us is gone. So all you have to do is get dressed and run. Then we also see more houses running when we go out. This is how you watch movies, says Kjærstad.

His family woke up from the landslide. She says her house still appears to be standing, but that it is going down the slope.

– We think we don’t see anything else. Everything is completely unreal.

Houses hanging in the air

Sven Olav Larsen and his wife live in Nystulia 44. They are also among the evacuees.

– When I looked outside I looked down deeply and realized that we had to get out. The house was there when we left, but it looks like it probably isn’t now, he says.

Another evacuee is Olav Gjerdingen, who lives about 150 meters from the area of ​​the landslide. The police woke him and his wife shortly after 5 p.m. and asked them to leave as soon as possible:

– We spoke with many who were in the place, and there are probably several houses hanging in the air. When we got to the town hall there was a person who was completely muddy after being carried away by the landslide, but had no physical injuries.

Jenny Mikkelsen lives right next to the landslide and filmed parts of it:

– What I saw were several houses that had collapsed and some cars down there. It was absolutely horrible to watch. Everything was on top of each other, it was hard to see what was what. Everything had just collapsed into a huge mass.

I thought it was snow removal

– There was no loud noise. There was a low rumble, such a strange rattling noise in the house. When it sinks afterwards, it was actually a very bad sound. But everyone interpreted it as snow removal, says Øystein Gjerdrum.

She cared for her three grandchildren at the ages of eight, ten and twelve when the landslide occurred. The house belongs to the daughter who was working. A few meters from the house, Gjerdrum could see the crater on the roofs of the neighboring houses.

They all got off safely in buses that had left to evacuate residents of the area. Gjerdrum boasts of the rescue work, which he says was quick and smooth.

I only have with us what we represent

– It was so unreal. I turned on the lighthouse and got closer, then I only saw a huge hole in the ground and many houses had disappeared.

That’s what Lindy Paulsen says. NRK meets him, Eva Lillo Larsen and their dog at the Olavsgaard hotel. There it is about to fill with evacuees.

– They were dramatic minutes when we had to evacuate from home and home and we got nothing more than what we were, says Lillo Larsen.

She says they live near the area of ​​the landslide. 50-60 meters from the landslide itself.

– My house is still there. I hope it’s still there. I am not thinking of material damage, rather I am thinking of whether there were many in the houses. Life and health ahead!

One of the evacuees shows a picture on his mobile phone to NRK. It looks gray, level to the ground. He says that “there were many houses here.”

– I saw the edge of the avalanche, it was huge, says Ragnar Gøllner.