Ava­lan­che dan­ger: Nyby­en evacua­ted

The wea­ther fore­cast for Lon­gye­ar­by­en says strong wind incre­asing to full storm during the night to Thurs­day, com­bi­ned with strong snow­fall. This wea­ther situa­ti­on means an increased risk of snow ava­lan­ches. The cur­rent ava­lan­che war­ning is level 4 on a sca­le of 5 levels. As a con­se­quence, the Sys­sel­man­nen has deci­ded to evacua­te Nyby­en.

Smal­ler snow ava­lan­ches on the slo­pes sur­roun­ding Lon­gye­ar­by­en are exepc­ted, but so far no major events that may cau­se dama­ge dama­ge to buil­dings. Nyby­en, Longyearbyen’s upper part, is faced with the grea­test risk, hence the pre­cau­tio­na­ry evacua­ti­on. Nyby­en is main­ly used for stu­dent housing and guest hou­ses, but the­re are also a few flats whe­re locals live. Most stu­dents are curr­ent­ly at home else­whe­re and not in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. The road to Nyby­en is clo­sed from the school. It is stron­gly advi­sed to resign from any field trips.

Other parts of Lon­gyear­ben are curr­ent­ly not con­cer­ned by evacua­tions. This includes the resi­den­ti­al area near Suk­ker­top­pen, which was hit by an ava­lan­che in Decem­ber 2015 with lethal con­se­quen­ces. The deve­lo­p­ment will be con­stant­ly moni­to­red by the Sys­sel­man­nen and rele­vant insti­tu­ti­ons.

Source: Sys­sel­man­nen

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