There’s a reason some old homes on Norway’s scenic Lofoten archipelago are literally tied down to the ground. Strong winds can sweep them off their foundations, which is what happened to some small modern holiday accommodation called hytter during a storm Sunday night.
“It felt like we were flying through the air,” Vincent Sussauze, visiting Lofoten with his wife Sreypov, told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) on Monday. “Everything happened very quickly but I remember thinking, ‘now we’re going to die.'”
Northern Norway has been hit with a series of severe storms recently, some with hurricane-force winds. The Sussauze couple and another from France described how the hytte in which they were staying flew off its foundation, landing as a shattered ruin on rocks jutting out of the sea. The couple lost all their belongings and suffered injuries but survived the ordeal that also cast them into stormy, cold waters.
Emergency crews arrived quickly, they made it to back to shore and the Sussauzes were recovering at the local hospital in Gravdal. Tourists staying in three similar cabins were evacuated and police are investigating whether the cabins “were built as they should have been.” Local officials were trying to help the tourists with new accommodation, clothing and travel documents. Sussauze, meanwhile, told NRK that he “never wanted to return to Lofoten.”
NewsinEnglish.no staff
