More than a dozen households were evacuated and more residents were put on standby to leave after a landslide crashed down a mountainside into the town of Haukland on Tuesday morning. A new housing estate in the Rogaland county town was struck by a 50 metre wide avalanche of dirt and debris, and emergency services warned more landslides could follow.
Police have received no reports of injuries or missing people, but have used sniffer dogs to search through the rubble reported Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK). The landslide brought down light poles, boulders and trees, destroyed one garage and damaged a car. Power was cut to a number of houses in the area, and excavators were used to try to stop water flooding into homes.
The nearest weather station to Haukland recorded 90.5 millimetres of rain on Monday, with more forecast for Tuesday. Emergency crews worked on Tuesday morning to secure the area in case a new landslide was triggered.
“It has come down in masses from several hundred metres up the mountainside before it reached the houses,” Lund fire chief John Skåland told NRK. “We have evacuated those who are directly affected, but are considered if we should evacuate more, since there’s still a risk rocks could break free from the mountainside.”
