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It is a morning like all the others. But soon, ten people will be buried in the snow. Only eight will survive. The great avalanche shook Longyearbyen in Svalbard, which is now working to protect society against the extreme weather of the future.
Malte Jochmann and Elke Morgner were buried in the snow, along with their children.
In one of the colorful pointy houses at the foot of Mount Sockertoppen, the breakfast manager continues. Malte Jochmann warms up milk for coffee as eight-week-old Svala suckles in the arms of her mother, Elke Morgner. At the kitchen table, older sister Elida sits with a friend of the couple.
Then suddenly everything becomes dark and cold. Snow penetrates through the window. It almost reaches the ceiling.
– Now I’m dying. That was my first thought, Malte Jochmann told the TT broadcast in Longyearbyen.
– But I managed to get rid of that. I crawled and saw that all the nearby houses had disappeared. We didn’t hear anything before the landslide, but we thought it was a snowflake throwing some snow at the window.
The rest of the family left. Burial. The baby has been swept from Elke Morgner’s arms. He can no longer see her, but hears her cry through the snow.
– I knew she was alive and we had to get her out quickly. But the snow was crowded around me. I screamed for help and Malte heard me.
On top of a kitchen cabinet, a wok kettle remains, despite the fact that almost 5,000 tons of snow have fallen down the mountain. Malte Jochmann uses the lid to dig up his family. He is dressed in a wool shirt and pants, without gloves. After all, he couldn’t know what to expect this Saturday morning, December 19, 2015. All he knows is that he can’t stop digging.
After 40 minutes, both children are rescued, in severe cold but alive. Two-year-old Elida is under more than two meters of snow.
– Many people came to help. We were so glad we were successful, says Morgner.
Two people were killed, a 42-year-old man and a two-year-old girl. Eleven houses were destroyed. The tragedy has left deep traces in Longyearbyen, a community of 2,400 inhabitants in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.
And when another avalanche was triggered in almost the same place in 2017, many people had enough.
– Some families no longer felt safe and moved to the mainland. We want to stay but live in a safe area against landslides now, says Morgner.
Five years later, Longyearbyen is transforming. Arctic society must protect itself to better resist the effects of warmer and wetter weather. Svalbard is one of the places where global warming is the fastest, and while it is not certain that a certain avalanche is due to climate change, the risks have increased significantly.
– The avalanches in 2015 and 2017 were the so-called five-thousand-year avalanches, so they will happen once in 5,000 years and two will happen in a short time, says Kim Holmén, international director of the Norwegian Polar Institute.
A few meters from the Sugar Top there is a sofa. There are also various containers and excavators here. The cold bites Elmer Lugod on the cheeks as he chooses among the gossiping forests about the great work being done to demolish 140 houses. The area is no longer considered safe to live.
– Snow can collapse, says Lugod, pointing towards the mountain, where landslides have begun to build, which in the future will run along the entire side of the mountain.
But before more permanent security measures are put in place, authorities rely on an avalanche hazard warning system. This means that some Longyearby residents sometimes have to leave their homes for a few days.
– Much has changed since 2015. It has always been known that there was a landslide risk at Svalbard, but not of that size. Climate change means that we can expect bigger and more dangerous races in the future, “says Governor Kjerstin Askholt, the highest representative of the Norwegian government in Svalbard.
– We have carried out risk assessments on all sides of the mountain and are working to secure the town. It’s a great job.
It was in the middle of the night that there was a knock on Ida Larsen’s door. The firefighter outside announced that he had a room to pack. For the past 3.5 years, she has been forced to leave her home multiple times when the avalanche danger is considered serious. She has a friendly evacuation call to go to bed with, but those without it can stay in a hotel or in the school gym.
– There are apartments that are more exposed than mine, they don’t always evacuate me. If she had had a family and children, she probably would have chosen to live somewhere else, but there are almost no empty homes because many are demolished, she says.
Windows open from the neighboring house. It is the length that has already begun to be shot down. Ida Larsen’s house will also have the same destination. But in the meantime, she’s not too worried about staying in the shadow of the Sugar Peak.
– Of course I’m afraid there will be an avalanche, but I trust the authorities. They have good control today. And if it happens, it happens. After all, it will be part of everyday life.
Halfway to the North Pole
Svalbard is located in the Arctic Ocean, halfway between the Norwegian mainland and the North Pole.
About 2,400 people from some 50 countries live in Longyearbyen, on the main island of Spetsbergen. In addition, around 500 live in the Russian mining town of Barentsburg and the Soviet ghost town of Pyramiden. Ny-Ålesund and Hornsund host researchers.
According to the Svalbard Treaty of 1920, the archipelago belongs to Norway. However, other nations that have signed the agreement have access to the islands and can do business there. Norwegian law applies and the administration is under the Norwegian Ministry of Justice.
The local administration is headed by the Governor of Longyearbyen.
Svalbard is demilitarized and should not be used for war purposes. However, as a result of Russian military installations on the Kola Peninsula, the arctic areas around Svalbard are considered to be of great strategic military importance. Opportunities to extract oil in the Barents Sea also contribute to great international interest in the area.
Source: Statistics Norway, Landguiden / UI
Here the heating goes faster
The Arctic is the polar region around the North Pole. There are several ways to determine what belongs to the Arctic, including through temperature or tree line. But often the northernmost part of Norway, most of Iceland, all of Greenland, the northern coasts of Alaska, Canada and Russia and the Arctic Ocean are counted.
According to the researchers, global warming is approximately twice as fast in the Arctic as in the rest of the world. And the area around the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard in the Northern Arctic Ocean is one of the places where it goes the fastest.
Since 1970, the average annual temperature in Svalbard has increased by 3-5 degrees, while the average winter temperature has increased by more than 7 degrees, according to the Svalbard 2100 Weather report, commissioned by the Norwegian Environment Agency. If emissions continue to rise, the average annual temperature can rise 7-10 degrees to 2100. This would mean Svalbard’s average temperature ranges from 8-9 less to 1-2 degrees more, according to the report.
