International Symposium on Mitigative Measures against Snow ...

<strong>International</strong> <strong>Symposium</strong> on Mitigative Measures against Snow Avalanches
Egilsstaðir, Iceland, March 11–14, 2008
FLATEYRI AVALANCHE
Everyone in Iceland was shocked after the avalanches in Súðavík. A national collection for
the victims of the avalanches was organized and collected some 200 million Icelandic kronas.
And the rescue teams wanted to learn from this experience. On 26 th of October same year the
snow tiger struck again. The conditions were similar, bad weather making transportation by
air difficult. Most of the rescuers from nearby communities
could go by road most of the way. A coast guard
vessel left Reykjavík 3 hours after the avalanche hit.
Rescuers and those in charge could draw on their
experience after the avalanche in Súðavík. Around noon
on the 26 th , the weather improved to make it possible
for helicopters to fly into the town with dogs and
rescuers. But there were some differences between the
two incidents. Around 13:00 hours four people had been
rescued alive but after that nobody was found alive in
the rubble. In Súðavík, a young boy was the last one
rescued 23 hours after the avalanche. The same incident
commander and command staff were present on the
scene and the experience from Súðavík gave the
rescuers a plan of action for the rescue. The local rescue
team had already started to plan the search and had
rescued several victims by the time rescuers arrived
from the Ísafjörður area. For the first hours, members of
Flateyri rescue team worked alone. Two rescuers were
sent by snowmobile to assess the size of the avalanche.
The local team only had 9 avalanche beacons and only
seven rescuers with beacons were allowed into the area at a time. Deputy team leader of the
local rescue team, Jón Svanberg Hjartarson, was in charge of the search. An hour before
rescuers arrived from Ísafjörður, he allowed some rescuers to go to the lower part of the
avalanche without beacons. He and his men also used the time to gather information about the
number of people missing. This made the work of the incident commander and command staff
arriving from Ísafjörður easier when they arrived 5 hours after the avalanche struck. With the
rescuers arriving from Ísafjörður came several search dogs and trained rescuers. The rescue
operation took new course with the arrival of the Ísafjörður team. The experience from
Súðavík made the work easier, it was like rescuers knew exactly what to do. The command
center was set up and a collection area for the rescuers. Maps were used to mark the
avalanche and rescuers were sent out in organized groups to search. The work was like in the
Súðavík disaster, a mix of avalanche and urban SAR. Dogs marked positions and information
about people staying in houses was used to search in the most likely areas. As mentioned
before, a coast guard ship was sent from Reykjavík, rescuers were also sent by air to the
Snæfellsnes area to meet up with another coast guard vessel that was at sea. Helicopters of the
Icelandic Coast Guard and United States Air Force based at the Keflavik Naval Base base
managed to fly with search dogs and rescuers to Flateyri around 13:00 hours on 26 th of
October. The people at Flateyri said when the helicopters arrived “It was like we were back in
contact with rest of the world” (Arnalds, 1996). The last victim was found 36 hours after the
avalanche and the last 24 hours of the rescue operation were devoted to the search for that
person, a little girl. The rescuers had to dig all the snow from the house she was in. It was a
104 Icelandic voluntary rescue teams in the Súðavík and Flateyri avalanches in 1995