A man from Agdenes on the fjord northwest of Trondheim was found dead during the night after he’d ventured outdoors to secure his property during the latest storm to batter the region known as Trøndelag. The storm also set off flooding, and more heavy rain was expected.
Police couldn’t say what actually killed the man, but they linked his death to the extreme weather system dubbed Roar, which is a man’s name in Norwegian but also, in this case, was literally roaring over north-central Norway.
“As far as we know, the fatal accident occurred when he went out to secure items in connection with the storm,” Trond Volden of the Sør-Trøndelag Police District told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) Friday morning.
Road closures
The storm, which closely followed another extreme weather system that swept over Northern Norway earlier this week, was keeping emergency crews busy on Friday. The town of Verdal was hit by flooding that threatened to submerge cars, large areas of the town center were under water and County Road 757 was forced to close.
“There’s a lot of water on the roads,” Lars Letnes of the Nord-Trøndelag Police District told NRK. “It will cause challenges for everyone living beyond the closure in Helgådalen.”
Several other local roads and highways were also closed, including County Roads 720 and 72, because of trees knocked down by the winds and an earthslide set off by the rains. Crews in Verdal scrambled to save around 30 cars from being ruined by the floodwaters.
State meteorologists predicted more rain and strong winds along the Helgeland coast and in Trøndelag north of Trondheim on Friday. The weather was expected to calm down a bit during the weekend.
Warnings against mountain treks
Norwegians heading into the last few days of the traditional autumn holiday week known as høstferie were warned against attempting hikes in the mountains. While last weekend’s weather was brilliant, with the sunshine enhanced by fall colours on the trees, this weekend was due to be marred by Roar and his remnants as the storm moved northeast into Sweden. Rough weather was predicted at high elevations in Buskerud, Oppland, Hedmark and Møre og Romsdal in addition to the Trøndelag counties.
“Some folks have been planning to go hiking this weekend, but I don’t think that’s wise,” cautioned Øyvind Johnsen at the state meteorologic institute. The winds can be so strong, he said, that “it can be difficult to stay standing, easy to get disoriented and even cars can be damaged.”
Norway’s best weekend weather was expected in the southeast. “Both Østlandet and Sørlandet will have fine weather,” Johnsen predicted. While temperatures were also expected to warm, they were due to plummet in Northern Norway, also under the freezing point.
newsinenglish.no/Nina Berglund
