C a s e

H i s t o r i e s

WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM ALL THIS?

PREVENTION:

CatastrophicavalanchesinIcelandoccurduringbad
weather.They can be forecastedandpeople evacuatedout
ofdanger.Theobservationandwarning systemforthe
whole country has been reorganizedand strengthened.
Avalanches can go much further than the current ava-
lanche hazard zone lines indicates.In addition tothose
two avalanches, 5 otheravalancheshave gone beyond the
hazard zone lines.At the moment work is being done to
makenew rules foravalanche hazard zoning inIceland.
Until new avalanche zoning has been made foreach vil-
lage and town,evacuation will be done according to new
evacuationmapsthatweremadelast winter(whichin-
cludes big margin for errors).
The risk forpeople living in those avalancheprone ar-
easistoohightobeacceptable.Anevacuation plan is
onlyatemporarysolution,butwork hasstarted onpro-
tecting all inhabitants living in houseswithin avalanche
hazardzones (partofitisofcoursenew avalanche zon-
ing).ForSudavik avalanche protection was very expen-
sive,soinsteadallthe houseswerebought bytheState
Avalanche Fund, and the village is being rebuilt in a safer
area, less than 1 km fromthe old place.Work has begun
on constructing big deflecting dams above Flateyri.
Mostofthe houses atthe edge of the debris were not
strong enoughto withstand even asmall load from the ava-
lanches, but so farnothing has been done to set rules for
strengtheninghouses close to avalanchehazardzones nor

has any research beenstarted to solve such technicalprob-
lems.

RESCUE:

Big avalanches, that hit built-up areas, most often happen
during badweather.In such conditions the roads are most
likelyclosedanditisimpossibletouserescue helicop-
ters.Therefore it is vital that avalanche rescue capability
is available ineachandevery town andvillagein avalanche
areas, at all times.Locals will have to take care of rescue
operationsduringthe firsthours,which isthe timethat
mostvictimscanbe rescued alive.Allrescueteams in
Iceland have been training hard foravalanche rescue and
more avalanche dogs are being trained, as a result of those
two avalanches.
Avalanchedogsarethemostpowerfulandeffective
method for locating avalanche victims (not wearing trans-
ceivers).Thereforeitisveryimportanttogetseveral
traineddogs(as they getexhaustedvery quickly undersuch
contitions) to the accident site as soon as possible.Even
so,the dogs may not be able tolocate all the victims and
even give many false indications (there are many possible
and long airways in avalanchedebris in built-up areas), so
many people equipped with probes and shovel have to be
available and trained foravalanchework.
Often search andrescueafter sucha big accidentis per-
formed in a heavy snowstorm with low visibility, prevent-
inganavalanche lookoutabovetheaccident site.Asa
resulttherescuepersonnelthemselvesareinconstant
dangerfromfurtheravalanches andatalltimesafully

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equippedback-uprescueteamhas to be kept ata safeplace,
close to the search area.
There seemto be no theories predicting wherevictims will
end up in the debris of an avalanches afterit has passed
houses.Special"detectives"should be selected as soon as
possible to assist the search leader to select the most likely
searchareas.Their only job is to hunt for any clues in the
debris thatcangive anindicationof thelocation of a victim.
Inthedebrisofan avalanche that hashitbuilt-upareas
there will be many items to investigate and study.This is
a demanding and difficult task, and those men should not
have any otherobligations during the search.
When using untrained volunteers in rescue operations
involvingacatastrophicavalanche,greatcarehas tobe
taken of their welfare and abilities.They will not all able
to do the necessary hard work under such a difficult con-
ditions,even though they have volunteered to do so,and
want to do it.Even so volunteers are an important source
ofassistanceinsuch abigincidents,speciallyinsmall
communities and in thebeginningof therescueoperations.
In a big avalanche,like these two, it is important to have
enough rescue equipment available forthe rescuers, such
as;avalanche transceivers (not onlyone perrescue team
member,butmanyextraforthosewhowill assist),ava-
lancheprobes(manywillbreakduringtheoperations),
shovels (good,steel made,and even they will break) and
equipmentfor urban searchandrescue(to go throughhouse
debris).

DATA COLLECTING:

After suchanavalancheitis very vital tocollectasmuchdata
as possible. Later it will be possible to usethis valuabledata
forresearch on avalanchesand avalancheaccidents.This
hastobedoneassoonaspossibleandbypeoplewith
experienceinavalanchework.Such abig accidentwill have
muchpsychologicaleffecton the personscollectingthe data
and thereis a great possibility thatsome important informa-
tionwillnotbedetected andregistered.Afterwalking
througha destroyedvillageandknowingwhathashappened
there, it is very hard to set the mind on somethingelse.As a
result ones mindis upset andthingsdon't happenvery logi-
cally and quickly.Therefore it is very important to give the
persons responsiblefor collectingsuchdataplentyoftime on
location, and free them from other duties in the meantime,
suchasavalancheforecasting,mediainterviewsand
meetings (and fromourexperience there willbe alotof
meetingsthe first days after suchan event).It is also impor-
tantto havemore thanonepersondoingthis job, becauseone
can seewhat othersaremissing.Plentyoftime,agood
camera,a lot of films, an openmind, an eye for detailsand a
notebook arethemost vitaltools to carryalongon sucha task.

CONCLUSIONS

Each and every avalanche accident is a lesson.A lesson
that can extend ourknowledge and understanding of this
dangerous enemy.The price forsuch a lesson is much to
often much to high, a human live.Therefore it is our duty
to learn asmuch as possiblefrom each andevery avalanche
accident, because after all, knowledge and understanding
aretheonlyweaponswewillevergettofightthe
avalanches.