When the storm swept into the villages with hurricane force, Fredrik Lindahl was 20 years old. Together with his brother, he was at home to take care of the milking of the farm’s cows, when the parents were away. Since the power was out, they sat in the car to listen to the radio.
– While we were sitting there, there was a strong gust of wind and the car rolled away by itself due to the wind, he remembers.
Big shock on the farm
Only the next day, when it got light, he and his brother went up to the family forest and it is a sight he will never forget.
– We only got to where the forest started, and it was packed with trees. It was several meters high. We got nowhere, says Fredrik Lindahl.
The shock was great on the farm, but already in the afternoon of the same day the family decided not to give up. An excavator was bought in and rebuilt to be able to take care of the forest, which had been their financial security. Then it just rolled on.
– We started a forestry company and started clearing the forest, then we started a company with our neighbor and started digging electric cables. After that we started a farm shop – started growing rapeseed and making rapeseed oil and selling our meat in the farm shop, says Karin Lindahl, who is now in her 60s.
“Had not seen opportunities without the storm”
She believes that the farm today would have been a more traditional dairy company if the storm Gudrun had not occurred.
– We had stuck to our old habits and hadn’t seen all the possibilities that we creatively started to think of, she says.
It wasn’t just at Kasteberg’s farm that life changed. Gudrun affected the whole village, says neighbor Micael Johansson, with whom Karin Lindahl and her husband started a business after the storm.
– Everyone cared about each other and made sure everyone had a good time. It became tighter in the villages, he says.
And it has lasted?
– Yes, I think so. After all, we have village associations, we have some parties and parties and it lasts.
Spruce forest became mixed forest
Today, 20 years later, the forest that was planted after the storm has grown so tall that it is time for thinning – and little yield. But it doesn’t look like it used to.
– Before we had much more firs, now we also have deciduous trees. It is so beautiful with the deciduous forest as an element of the spruce forest. It has become a mixed forest, says Karin Lindahl.
She summarizes the lessons she learned from life after the storm.
– All disasters are problems, but if you turn the problems into an opportunity, you also gain strength, says Karin Lindahl.
Facts: About Gudrun
On the night between 8 and 9 January 2005, southern Sweden was hit by storm Gudrun, with strong wind speeds of up to 33 m/s and gusts of up to 42 m/s.
The cause was an explosive deepening of low pressure, which first arose northwest of Ireland on Friday evening, January 7, and which then moved towards Sweden.
The most severe and extensive damage occurred in Småland, Halland, northern Skåne and Blekinge and southern Västergötland.
The damage to the forest was aggravated by the fact that the ground was wet and without frost. Pure stands of spruce were worst affected and 80 percent of the fallen trees were spruce.
Seven people lost their lives directly in connection with the storm and eleven people in connection with the dangerous clean-up work after the storm. At most, 415,000 households are said to have been without power.
The costs to society were enormous and have been reported to have amounted to approximately SEK 21 billion.
Source: SMHI, the Swedish Forestry Agency and the government and others.