Update (21 Decem­ber): The wea­ther has cal­med down again and after che­cking rele­vant ava­lan­che-pro­ne slo­pes, the aut­ho­ri­ties have deci­ded to lift the traf­fic ban that was imple­men­ted on Mon­day.
The evacua­tions from last week, con­cer­ning the upper row of hou­ses in Lia, remains in force until fur­ther noti­ce (end of update).

It seems almost stran­ge: exact­ly 2 years after the fatal ava­lan­che in Lon­gye­ar­by­en, the wea­ther fore­cast for today (19 Decem­ber) seems almost exact­ly the same as it was just befo­re snow mas­ses kil­led two peo­p­le in their homes on 19 Decem­ber, 2015. Winds up to 20 m/s from sou­the­as­ter­ly direc­tions and strong pre­ci­pi­ta­ti­on are expec­ted during the evening.

For tonight, a com­me­mo­ra­ti­on cerem­o­ny was sche­du­led for the vic­tims of the fatal 2015 ava­lan­che. But it seems as if many people’s atten­ti­on will rather be deman­ded by today’s situa­ti­on and events. Some days ago, the Sys­sel­man­nen had alre­a­dy issued an order to evacua­te parts of Lon­gye­ar­by­en. This was to be in force on 22 Decem­ber and based on the gene­ral ava­lan­che risk, rather than the actu­al wea­ther and ava­lan­che situa­ti­on. After new wea­ther fore­casts were released, this mea­su­re came into force alre­a­dy yes­ter­day (18 Decem­ber) at 22 p.m.

At the same time, the evacua­ti­on zone was exten­ded to include more hou­ses in Lia, the part of Lon­gye­ar­by­en that was hit in 2015 (“Spiss­hus­e­ne”, the colou­red woo­den hou­ses bet­ween the cent­re and the moun­tain Suk­ker­top­pen) and parts of Nyby­en (all hou­ses on the east side of the road).

The evacua­tions are in force until fur­ther noti­ce. Some addres­ses may not be acces­si­ble for months.

Lar­ge parts of Nyby­en and Lia in Lon­gye­ar­by­en are now evacua­ted becau­se of the cur­rent and gene­ral ava­lan­che risk.

Soon it will be two years ago that the ava­lan­che came down from the moun­tain Suk­ker­top­pen that des­troy­ed ele­ven hou­ses and took two lives. The­re will be a memo­ri­al cerem­o­ny in Lon­gye­ar­by­en on the day, 19 Decem­ber.

The­re has been – and still is – a lot of tal­king about the ava­lan­che risk in Lon­gye­ar­by­en on all levels. It seems obvious that the­re have been negle­cts on various public levels, but it was said offi­ci­al­ly that the­re is no insti­tu­ti­on or indi­vi­du­al that may legal­ly be held respon­si­ble.

And the­re is, of cour­se, the ques­ti­on of how to deal with the ava­lan­che risk in future. An offi­ci­al report about the ava­lan­che situa­ti­on has deter­mi­ned that a lar­ge num­ber of hou­ses in Lon­gye­ar­by­en is expo­sed to various levels of ava­lan­che risk. A local war­ning sys­tem has been estab­lished, which has pro­du­ced mixed results so far; on one occa­si­on, the sys­tem pro­du­ced a fal­se secu­ri­ty state­ment that was spec­ta­cu­lar­ly wrong. Two hou­ses were des­troy­ed on that occa­si­on, and it was a mat­ter of luck that the­re was no loss of human life. Instru­ments to mea­su­re the thic­k­ness of the snow lay­er have been instal­led on various slo­pes clo­se to Lon­gye­ar­by­en. The­se instru­ments are sup­po­sed to pro­vi­de real-time data about snow accu­mu­la­ti­on in loca­ti­ons whe­re peo­p­le had to mea­su­re manu­al­ly in the past, some­thing that is often dif­fi­cult or even impos­si­ble in situa­tions of seve­re wea­ther when an increased risk has to be assu­med. But that is obvious­ly exact­ly when you need that kind of data, so the­se new deci­ves are expect to make a signi­fi­cant impro­ve­ment to the ava­lan­che war­ning sys­tem.

Ava­lan­che bar­riers are ano­ther mea­su­re expec­ted in the future, but they are not the­re yet, almost two years after the big, tra­gic 2015 event. Evacua­ting parts of Lon­gye­ar­by­en, on a situa­ti­ve or per­ma­nent basis, is also one of the opti­ons which are dis­cus­sed. The finan­cial aspects of all that is yet ano­ther issue.

It does, howe­ver, not cost the public much to evacua­te cer­tain addres­ses on a pre­ven­ti­ve basis. Evacua­ting parts of Lon­gye­ar­by­en has beco­me a stan­dard pro­ce­du­re during win­ters sin­ce late 2015. Yes­ter­day (14 Decem­ber), the Sys­sel­man­nen has issued an order that cer­tain addres­ses have to be left until 22 Decem­ber until fur­ther noti­ce. This mea­su­re is expec­ted to be in force until the snow is gone, which means, the hou­ses will not be available for months.

The­se parts of Lon­gye­ar­by­en (mark­ed red) will be evacua­ted from 22 Decem­ber until fur­ther noti­ce. The com­ple­te map is available from the Sys­sel­man­nen.

So far, evacua­tions were made in or befo­re an actu­al risk situa­ti­on, based on snow con­di­ti­ons, wea­ther fore­casts etc. This time, howe­ver, the­re is no such base for the evacua­ti­on, some­thing that beco­mes clear from the time span of 8 days bet­ween the issue of the evacua­ti­on order and the date (22 Dec) when it actual­ly enters force. Sys­sel­man­nen Kjers­tin Askholt says “The ban on traf­fic is based on the risk eva­lua­ti­on for indi­vi­du­als and public safe­ty, becau­se this area is espe­ci­al­ly expo­sed to ava­lan­ches. The cur­rent prac­ti­ce with a local ava­lan­che war­ning sys­tem and pos­si­ble evacua­tions, based on tech­ni­cal advice from ava­lan­che experts, does not exclude a high resi­du­al risk and remai­ning uncer­tain­ties, so the hou­ses in ques­ti­on can not be used while the­re are no mea­su­res for ava­lan­che safe­ty in place” (Sys­sel­man­nen, auhtor’s trans­la­ti­on).

Are­as con­cer­ned are addres­ses in way 222 and 226, which are loca­ted direct­ly next to the moun­tain Suk­ker­top­pen, but may be exten­ded to other are­as at any time as dee­med neces­sa­ry by aut­ho­ri­ties.

Evacua­ting a num­ber of hou­ses for a lon­ger peri­od of time based on gene­ral pre­cau­tio­na­ry reasons rather than an actu­al risk situa­ti­on appears to be a dra­stic step, com­pared to the impact that this has on the lives of tho­se who have to lea­ve their homes for months. The­re are tho­se who have, next to their home in the area con­cer­ned, ren­ted a place else­whe­re in Lon­gye­ar­by­en on a per­ma­nent basis, some­thing that obvious­ly invol­ves high cos­ts and this is not a con­tri­bu­ti­on to the alre­a­dy dif­fi­cult housing mar­ket in Lon­gye­ar­by­en eit­her. Tho­se who own a place in the area that is affec­ted, are also faced with a sub­stan­ti­al­ly dif­fi­cult situa­ti­on.

Not a glo­rious chap­ter for poli­tics, con­side­ring the cur­rent deve­lo­p­ment star­ted with the ava­lan­ce in Decem­ber 2015 – two years ago.

Source: Sys­sel­man­nen