Ava­lan­che risk: parts of Lon­gye­ar­by­en evacua­ted

The wea­ther fore­cast pre­dicts strong sou­the­as­ter­ly winds, remi­nis­cent of the situa­ti­on just befo­re and during the fatal ava­lan­che in Decem­ber 2015 during which 2 peo­p­le died in their homes.

The red zone near Lia, the part of Lon­gye­ar­by­en next to the moun­tain Suk­ker­top­pen, may not be ente­red until from Satur­day 8 a.m. until fur­ther noti­ce from offi­ci­al side. The buil­dings shown in the red area were des­troy­ed by the cata­stro­phic 2015 ava­lan­che.
Map © Norsk Polar­in­sti­tutt / Sys­sel­man­nen på Sval­bard.

The Sys­sel­man­nen has reac­ted and evacua­ted parts of Lon­gye­ar­by­en that may be at risk. This con­cerns a cou­ple of hou­ses in Nyby­en on the east side of the road, near the slo­pe of the moun­tain, and the lower slo­pes of Suk­ker­top­pen next to Lia (the part of Lon­gye­ar­by­en that has the love­ly old woo­den buil­dings with pit­ched roofs). This is whe­re hou­ses were des­troy­ed during the ava­lan­che a few days befo­re Christ­mas 2015.

The are­as con­cer­ned must be evacua­ted until Satur­day mor­ning 08:00 and they may not be ente­red until fur­ther noti­ce by the Sys­sel­man­nen. Peo­p­le can not arran­ge pri­va­te accom­mo­da­ti­on can cont­act the local admi­nis­tra­ti­on. The­re are fewer locals, tou­rists and stu­dents in Lon­gye­ar­by­en now than in nor­mal times due to the coro­na cri­sis, so accom­mo­da­ti­on should gene­ral­ly be available.

The red zone in and near Nyby­en in upper Lon­gye­ar­by­en is off limits as of Satur­day 8 a.m. and until fur­ther noti­ce from the Sys­sel­man­nen.
Map © Norsk Polar­in­sti­tutt / Sys­sel­man­nen på Sval­bard.

The Sys­sel­man­nen reminds ever­y­bo­dy that the­re is a high ava­lan­che risk in the field. The Nor­we­gi­an ava­lan­che war­ning web­site Varsom.no curr­ent­ly indi­ca­tes risk level 3 (oran­ge) for Nor­dens­ki­öld Land.

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