Norway Floods Spur Evacuation Consideration to Stay Ahead of Wild Weather

Amid rising floodwaters, Norwegian officials weighed evacuations in the country’s southeast on Friday in a bid to “think a few steps ahead” of the extreme weather.

Typically calm rivers were running wild with downed trees and debris, and lakes were overflowing after a recent dayslong stretch of torrential rain from Storm Hans. And the levels continued to rise Friday despite two straight days without further rain.

In the town of Hoenefossen, an estimated 3,600 people had already been evacuated, according to Norwegian outlet NTB, and officials were mulling moving more ahead of possible landslides.

“We constantly try to think a few steps ahead,” Magnus Nilholm, an emergency manager in the region, told another Norwegian outlet, NRK. “We are ready to press an even bigger red button.”

Water levels around Hoenefossen, which sits about 25 miles north of Oslo, were expected to rise further and remain high until at least Monday, Ivar Berthling of Norway's Water Resources and Energy Directorate told NTB.

“We are still facing critical days,” officials from the Ringerike municipality, which includes Hoenefossen, said in a statement.

Norway’s King Harald V and Queen Sonja were briefed on the situation Friday. The king later met with volunteers who worked with evacuees.

”This was really extreme,” Harald, 86, told reporters.

Officials had not provided a nationwide count on evacuees as of Friday. The overall financial impact from the floods could amount to the equivalent of roughly $100 million.

Storm Hans hammered northern Europe earlier this week, leading to widespread flooding, power disruptions and at least three deaths.

The effects were particularly hard on southeastern Norway, where a hydroelectric dam in a river gave out on Wednesday, overwhelmed by the volume of water.

With Associated Press