An unprecedented crisis. Thousands of people have been evacuated and a power station is submerged after heavy flooding in Norway, authorities in the Scandinavian country said on Wednesday. “We are living in a crisis of national dimensions,” said Aud Hove, head of the county of Innlandet, the most affected by the floods and landslides that hit the south of the country; 115 roads were affected by these bad weather.
“We have never seen such high flood levels in several rivers. The forecasts indicate that the floods will continue to increase in the main rivers”, for his part told the daily VG Erik Holmqvist, an official of the Energy and Water Agency. Seven helicopters have been deployed to help evacuate residents, the government said.
A flooded hydroelectric plant
“There are a lot of people evacuated, a lot of people affected and huge material damage. The situation is very difficult in a large part of the country,” warned the Minister of Justice and Public Security, Emilie Enger Mehl.
And the hydroelectric plant of Braskereidfoss, located on the banks of the Glomma river, the longest in the country, was flooded following a failure to open its floodgates. Norwegian electricity supplier Hafslund said following a grid failure at the plant, the dam’s generators stopped working in the early hours of Wednesday.
The floods then inundated the facility, rendering it inoperative and causing property damage, Hafslund continued in its statement. With the passage of the storm called “Hans” since the weekend, Norway and Sweden are facing heavy rains that have caused flooding and landslides.