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Key Words: Avalanche, avalanche accident, evacuation, res-
cue
ABSTRACT
This presentation will be case histories oftwo avalanche
disasters in Iceland in the year 1995, resulting in the death
of 34people.Each avalanche hit a small fishing village,
destroyingmanyhouses inthe middleofthe night.On
January 16th the village of Sudavik was partly destroyed
by an avalanche,killing 14people,and on October26th
thevillage ofFlateyriwas hit,killing20people.Those
villages are both on the North-West peninsula of Iceland,
named Vestfirdir,whose history has during the centuries
proved to be very prone to avalanches.Both avalanches
happenedduring severe northerly snowstorms, thatcaused
widespread avalanche activityanddamages.Bothava-
lanches went much further than the hazard zone line had
indicated, which is also true for5 other avalanches in the
area in the lasttwo years.The size of the accidents and
the bad weather had a big effect on the rescue operations,
and the rescue efforts were a test forthe whole Icelandic
rescuesystem.Those two disasters affected the avalanche
warningandprotection system in Iceland, which hassince
been reorganized and strengthened.In the future one of
thevillageswillbeprotectedbydefense structures and
the other will be moved to a safer place.
INTRODUCTION
Iceland is an island inthe middle of the North-Atlantic,
around 103,000km 2in size, with a little over260,000 in-
habitants.Most of the settlements are along the coast, on a
narrow strip between the seaand themountains (600-1000
meterhigha.s.l.incoastalareas),orindeepvalleys
extending from the fjords.A landscape made by the gla-
ciers during the last ice-age are in many cases ideal run-
ways foravalanches.Untilthe 19th century most of the
Icelanders lived on small farms,spread all overthe coun-
try, but then small fishing villages were established along
the coast.Most often this was on reefs extending into the
fjords,where it was easyto safelyland the smallfishing
boats.In the beginning of the 20th century new technol-
ogy led to greatdevelopment in thefishing industry, which
causedthose villages to grow rapidly. This meant that they
extended from the reef up the mountainsides above it and
alongthe narrowcoast,oftenintoareas which werenot
safe from avalanches.
The climate in Iceland is a maritime one, variable, with
relatively mild weather, but very changeable. The weather
is mostly controlled by pressure lows and fronts,passing
NW along the North-Atlantic,resulting in (often sudden)
changes in the weather.
FromthemomentthefirstsettlersethisfootonIce-
land, in the year874,avalanches have been a threat.The
oldestdescriptionofanavalanche accident comesfrom
Sturlungu, one of the old Sagas:
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"Snorri hada good stock of sheep and livedin Svinadalur,
wherenowiscalledSnorrastadir.Hedr ownedin
Saelingsdalsa, where now is called Snorravad.Then went
Sighvatur Ulfsson,his brother-in-law, to look forhim and
four men with him and they were hit by an avalanche and
all killed."
This was in the year 1118.
From that year, chronicles tells of around 680 fatalities
as a result of avalanches,and one can assume that many
accidents are missing,specially before the year 1600.Of
those 680 fatalities, 164 happened during thiscentury, 107
of them in houses and villages, but 57 on roads and in the
backcountry.Noothernatural hazard has claimed more
human lives, exceptbad weather sinking boats anddrown-
ingfishermen.Alltheearlieraccidents wererelatively
small,sincethe people livedon smallindividualfarms.
Afterthevillagesstartedtoform,biggeravalanche acci-
dentsfollowed.24peopledied inSeydisfjordurinthe
year1885,20 people in Hnifsdalurin 1910,12 people in
Neskaupstadur in 1974, 14 people in Sudavik in 1995 and
20 people in Flateyri in 1995.
THETWOAVALANCHES
On the morning of January 14th 1995 a pressurelow could
be seen on weather charts, far SWof Iceland.At that time
its influence on the weather in Icelandwasnot certain, but
as it came closerthe computerforecasts indicated that it
would lead toa fullforce winterstorm.On Sunday the
13th the windspeedstarted to increase, with snowfall and
heavy drifting snow.That day a general avalanchewarn-
ing was issued and people started to evacuate the houses
that were within avalanchehazard zones in the villages in
northern and western parts of Iceland.
At 6:25 in the morning of January 16th a big avalanche
startedhighinthe mountainabovethesmallvillageof
Sudavik (230 inhabitants) in the NW part of Iceland (Fig-
ure 1).The avalanche isbelieved tohave startedat the
mountain edge (elevationof 580 m.a.s.l.), possibly as a col-
lapse of a cornice,but gained size as it ran furtherdown
the mountain slope.This is only assumed,since the four
day storm that followed theavalancheeliminatedall marks
ofthestartofit.Thestarting zoneisexpected tohave
beenabout200meterswide,butfurtherdowntheava-
lanche spread out tothe width of 430 meters.The total
lengthoftheavalanchepath was1,400metersandthe
estimated size around 150,000 m 3.
The avalanchehit 17 buildings in the village and ranfar
beyond the avalanchehazardzone line.All of those build-
ings,except two,were homes and at that time there were
48 people in them, all asleep.Only 3 of those houses were
within the avalanchehazardzone, but had notbeen evacu-
ated at that time.The force of the avalanchewas enough
tototallywipeoutsomeofthehouses,butotherwere
damaged, some severely and others less so.Of those 48
people,21 people got out the avalanche on theirown or
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