Several areas in southwestern Norway have been hit by heavy rain and flooding in connection with a storm named Jakob moving in on Thursday.
In Ullensvang municipality, a couple of hours east of Norway’s second largest city Bergen, the situation is described as dramatic by the municipality’s chairman. The central town of Odda, with around 5,000 inhabitants, has become completely isolated after being refused.
“All three roads in and out of the central town are closed. There have been several landslides and there are rivers that are about to overflow,” writes Roald Aga Haug (Labor Party) in an SMS to NTB.
25 houses with 47 inhabitants have been evacuated in nearby Eitrheim.
“We are now mapping whether there are more areas that need to be evacuated because the water level is still rising,” writes Haug on Thursday evening.
Also in the municipality of Årdal, a bit further north, around 100 people from 25 households have been evacuated due to rapidly rising water.
A large number of roads in western Norway are closed and several bridges have collapsed due to the water pressure, in addition there have been minor landslides along several roads. In Voss, the municipality has sent out a flood warning to all residents of the village of Evanger.
There are no reports of anyone being injured in the storm.