The 1995 Súðavík avalanche was an avalanche that struck the small fishing village of

Súðavík Súðavík () is a fishing village and municipality (Súðavíkurhreppur ) on the west coast of Álftafjörður in Westfjords, Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic ...

in Iceland’s

Westfjords The Westfjords or West Fjords (, ) is a large peninsula in northwestern Iceland and an administrative region, the least populous in the country. It lies on the Denmark Strait, facing the east coast of Greenland. It is connected to the rest of I ...

on 16 January 1995, killing 14 people, including eight children, and injuring twelve. The disaster, along with the avalanche that killed 20 in Flateyri later in the year, had a profound effect on the nation and sparked a massive buildup of

avalanche dam Avalanche control or avalanche defense activities reduce the hazard avalanches pose to human life, activity, and property.

s to protect towns in danger zones.

The avalanche

On 16 January 1995, at 6:25 in the morning during a major storm, a 400 meters wide avalanche hit the village, destroying fifteen homes that housed 26 people. Four minutes later, the police in the neighboring town

Ísafjörður Ísafjörður (pronounced , meaning ''ice fjord'', literally ''fjord of ices'') is a town in the northwest of Iceland. The oldest part of Ísafjörður with the town centre is located on a spit of sand, or ''eyri'', in Skutulsfjörður, a fjord ...

received a distress call from the town, while residents who were unaffected by the avalanche immediately mounted a search and rescue operation and set up a rescue center in the local fishing factory, named Frosti. Shortly later,

fishing trawler A fishing trawler is a commercial fishing vessel designed to operate fishing trawls. Trawling is a method of fishing that involves actively dragging or pulling a trawl through the water behind one or more trawlers. Trawls are fishing nets tha ...

s owned by Frosti, who were moored nearby due to the weather, attempted to illuminate the area with spotlights, but were held back by poor visibility and inclement conditions. Four individuals were quickly found and 11 others were rescued over the next few hours. Due to extremely bad weather conditions, road access to the town was cut off and rescue units, many of them volunteers, had to be brought by boats from Ísafjörður. Two hours after the avalanche, the first SAR members, along with rescue dogs, doctors and nurses, sailed from Ísafjörður with the ferry Fagranes and arrived roughly an hour later. Later in the day, the Icelandic Coast Guard Vessel Týr undertook a 20-hour voyage from

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

through the storm with additional rescue units, medical staff and supplies. At 19:30, a second avalanche, 100 meter wide, hit the town and damaged several unoccupied houses, including the power station, knocking out power to the town. Due to the loss of power, the rescue command and control center is moved from the fish factory to the ferry Fagranes. Partial power is later restored to the factory by connecting it to the trawler Kofri. Around 20:15, the trawler Margrét EA was hit by a

rogue wave A rogue wave is an abnormally large ocean wave. Rogue wave may also refer to: * Optical rogue waves, are rare pulses of light analogous to rogue or freak ocean waves. * Rogue Wave Software, a software company * Rogue Wave (band), an American in ...

while transporting rescuers from Dýrafjörður . The wave smashed all windows in the bridge and rendered the ships navigational equipment non-operational, forcing it to abandon its mission and seek shelter. 15 hours after the avalanche, rescuers found a 14-year old girl alive in the wreckage in critical condition. The last survivor, a 10-year-old boy, was rescued 23 hours after the avalanche.

Aftermath

In the aftermath of the disaster, the town was moved inwards in the fjord. Several houses still stand in the old part of the town but overnight stay there is forbidden during the winter time. The disaster, along with the

1995 Flateyri avalanche The 1995 Flateyri avalanche was an avalanche that struck the village of Flateyri in Iceland’s Westfjords on 26 October 1995, killing 20 people. It came 8 months after an avalanche in Súðavík killed 14 people. The disasters had a profound ef ...

, also raised awareness to the dangers settlements in the country faced from avalanches as well as to the

psychological trauma Psychological trauma (also known as mental trauma, psychiatric trauma, emotional damage, or psychotrauma) is an emotional response caused by severe distressing events, such as Major trauma, bodily injury, Sexual assault, sexual violence, or ot ...

the survivors and the rescuers faced in the aftermath.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Súðavík avalanche, 1995 1995 in Iceland 1995 natural disasters 1990s avalanches 1990s disasters in Iceland January 1995 in Europe Avalanches in Europe Natural disasters in Iceland Westfjords