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Friday, March 29, 2024

Floods drench Trøndelag counties

More than a dozen roads were closed on Friday, a train line was blocked and several rural areas were isolated after heavy rain and rapidly melting snow set off major flooding in the counties of Nor- and Sør-Trøndelag. The Stjørdal area emerged as among the hardest hit.

Officials at the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) feared the water levels from rivers and streams would rise to levels that would make the flooding the worst in 50 years.

Unseasonably warm temperatures and a lot of rain has especially swelled waterways in the Trøndelag counties of central Norway. The rain in combination with melting snow and ice was especially swelling waterways east and north of Trondheim, and NVE warned the water could keep rising through the weekend.

Meteorologists, however, said the rain was due to let up, bringing some relief to the area. “We’ve had a difficult night,” chief engineer Asbjørn Osnes of NVE told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK), “but the rain is letting up.” He hoped the water levels would start to recede.

The waters were rising most quickly at Krinsvatn in Rissa on Thursday, but the river Stordalselva around Åfjord in Sør-Trøndelag seemed to overtake the dubious distinction during the night.  Residents of Åford had to use boats to get home from work and school on Thursday.

The rainfall at Åfjord was so heavy that the area received as much in one day this week as it normally gets in a month. Several hundred residents of Åfjord were isolated on Friday by the flooding, as it cut off local roads.

NVE officials also feared more rockslides in the area and the train line Meråkerbanen also had to close between Hell and Storlien. Officials blamed the closure on the heavy rain and fear that ground under the tracks would be washed away. The main train line Norlandsbanen re-opened, with regular service due to resume on Friday.

Views and News from Norway/Nina Berglund

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