Landslide on the E45 in Lilla Edet – chaos and evacuation

LITTLE OATH. When the landslide stopped traffic on the E45, the sisters Joline, 16, and Jonna, 13, were on their way home from a horse competition.

Now the horses are grazing on the motorway exit – and the family is waiting to be able to get home.

– We have been here for over four hours, says Joline Eriksson.

Under a motorway viaduct just outside Lilla Edet, a car is completely covered in water. Only the roof rails are visible. On the other side of the approximately 100 meter water accumulation, a group of motorists have gathered at the exit.

They got here at 5pm, when a landslide caused chaos and required the E45 to be shut down. Around 30 travelers were at the exit at 10 p.m. – two of them were the sisters Joline Eriksson, 16, and Jonna Eriksson, 13, on their way home to Värmland.

– We are on our way from a horse competition, says Joline.

They have their mother and a younger sibling with them – and a horse transport. In it were the horses Astiz Inez and Minuette – who at 9pm were finally allowed to come out and graze on the small patch of grass next to the road.

– It has not been as dangerous as we thought. They are quite calm, says Joline.

The siblings still do not know if they will come home to Värmland on Sunday.

– We are waiting. It just stopped, it was a flood, says Jonna Eriksson, 13.

“The rain was terrible”

During Sunday afternoon, road users were evacuated from the part of the route where there is a risk of landslides. The focus has been on getting people out of the area – some cars remain.

The forecast is currently uncertain, but the Swedish Transport Administration has stated that the road is expected to be closed at least until lunchtime on Tuesday. One who has to take a different route from Lilla Edet is Anders from Borlänge.

Together with his wife, he had planned to stay at a hotel in Lilla Edet during Sunday evening and then continue towards Gothenburg and Denmark on Monday.

– We drove down from the north, we were supposed to start the holiday today. It was terrible rainy weather when we arrived, but it was possible to get here, he says.

Can you describe the rain?

– It came and went and was horrible. The windshield wipers barely had time. Then when we got here it just poured down in the parking lot.

From the hotel room, Anders and his wife could then observe how chaos erupted after the landslide. At first they thought the traffic had been stopped due to an accident.

– But then we saw that there was something strange upstairs. And then it just got worse and worse, it got whiter and whiter, this styrofoam then. It was then when this road collapsed, he says.

“Chaos after the road”

No injuries have been reported and no one is said to have been taken to hospital after the landslide at E45. But the incident has extensive traffic impacts – the affected section is just south of Trollhättan and five miles north of Gothenburg.

– It’s chaos after the road. It came to a complete standstill, it was impossible to get forward, says Thomas Lindholm from Trollhättan.

When Aftonbladet meets Thomas outside the gas station to which a number of motorists have been evacuated from the highway, he is on his way to pick up his son. The son has been on a caravan holiday with his family.

Now Thomas points to a lone white caravan out on the motorway. The family had to jump out and evacuate on foot.

– They got stuck in the queue. It has all been water, I had to find detours to get here.

He hopes to get his family home as soon as possible.

– There are also two kids, so it’s probably not so fun. You sit for several hours in a car when you want to go home, he says.