Second dead person found at Gjerdrum landslide site
Another dead person was found in the landslide area in Gjerdrum on Saturday. However, the rescue crews are still working on finding survivors.
“A person has been found. Unfortunately, the person has been confirmed dead,” police task force leader Roy Alkvist said at an urgent press conference just before 2:00 PM on Saturday.
The find was made less than 100 meters into the landslide area.
A total of two dead people have thus been found in the landslide area. Eight people are still not accounted for.
Air pockets
Search crews say they still have hope of finding survivors in air pockets.
“Medically, you can survive for several days if you have air. So to the extent that you have air pockets, it is possible to survive,” police chief Ida Melbo Øystese in the Eastern Police District said at a press conference in Gjerdrum at noon on Saturday.
It has been cold, and it has snowed for periods in Gjerdrum since the landslide occurred on Wednesday. These conditions can affect the likelihood of survival.
“The forces of nature are not on our side. And time is not on our side either,” Øystese said.
Hoping for air pockets in houses
Landslides have a liquid mass where there are usually not many air pockets.
Police Chief Øystese is nevertheless aware that there may be air pockets in some of the houses that have been swept up by the landslide and that are still partially intact.
“This is what we are working on now,” Øystese said.
It is her task to make the decision on when the search will no longer be about finding survivors of the landslide.
“But we are not there now,” the police chief said.
On January 1, the police published the names of all the missing people after the landslide in Gjerdrum municipality.
Three USAR teams still in the landslide area
Three so-called USAR (Urban Search and Rescue) teams worked in the landslide area in Gjerdrum on Saturday to search for the missing people.
“The rescue operation is in full swing. As of now, three different USAR teams are working inside the landslide area, as well as dog teams. These are USAR teams from Trøndelag, Oslo, and Nedre Romerike and dog teams from the Oslo Police District,” Alkvist said at the press conference at 12 o’clock.
Earlier on Saturday, it became clear that the Swedish USAR team that has been active in Gjerdrum is traveling back to Sweden after the Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning announced that they have sufficient resources.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
