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The Hatlestad Slide was a slide of mud and rock which occurred in the early morning of September 14, 2005 in a rural area in Bergen

Bergen

Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, as a result of heavy rainfall. The slide killed three people, wounded seven, and displaced

Internally displaced person

An internally displaced person is someone who is forced to flee his or her home but who remains within his or her country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the current legal definition of a refugee. At the end of 2006 it was estimated there were...

 many more, as it hit a row of residential houses in its path while the houses' occupants were asleep. The event is notable not only for the loss of life it caused, but also for how it altered Norwegian policies on environmentalism

Environmentalism

Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...

 and housing construction, as well as emergency management

Emergency management

Emergency management is the generic name of an interdisciplinary field dealing with the strategic organizational management processes used to protect critical assets of an organization from hazard risks that can cause events like disasters or catastrophes and to ensure the continuance of the...

. In addition, the question on whether or not to end the treatment of fatally wounded Kristina Hjartåker, who was put on a ventilator

Medical ventilator

A medical ventilator can be defined as any machine designed to mechanically move breatheable air into and out of the lungs, to provide the mechanism of breathing for a patient who is physically unable to breathe, or breathing insufficiently....

 until her death in February, sparked national debate, both on the case itself and on the ending of life-prolonging treatment in general.

Hatlestad before the slide

Hatlestad Terrasse, a rural neighborhood in the borough of Fana

Fana

Fana is a borough of the city of Bergen, Norway.-History:Prior to 1972, Fana was an independent municipality which territory also included today's boroughs of Ytrebygda, Fyllingsdalen, and the southernmost part of Årstad.-Geography:...

, consists of clusters of housing units in a hilly setting. A single one-lane street connects the housing units to each others and to Osvegen, a major two-lane road directly connecting the town of Os

Os, Hordaland

Os is a municipality in the county of Hordaland, Norway. Due to its proximity to Bergen, Os is experiencing strong population growth. -History:...

 to the area of Nesttun

Nesttun

Nesttun is an urban centre and neighbourhood in the southern parts of the city of Bergen, Norway, located approximately 10 km south of the city centre. It was the centre of Fana municipality, which merged with Bergen in 1972, and is today the administration centre of Fana borough. Nesttun...

. Hatlestad Terrasse 40, 42, 44 and 46, the grey-roofed houses closest to Osvegen, were the ones to be hit by the slide.

Before the Hatlestad Slide, Norway maintained a liberal policy when it came to housing construction on hills. The area of the afflicted housing units were therefore not surveyed for landslide risk before construction was commenced in the sixties, and the risk of landslides did not become known until later. After construction was finished, there were several incidents of rocks dislodging from the cliff and hitting the road. The rocks did not cause material damage or personal injury, and the municipality took no action besides setting up a warning sign by the road. Despite repeated complaints from Hatlestad's residents about this problem and the general risk of landslides, the municipality did not secure the area, stating that securing land against landslides is the responsibility of the property owner. However, an order given to the property owners to secure the hill were never responded to, and the case was never resolved.

Indirect causes

According to the post-slide report released by Multiconsult and reviewed by NTNU

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology , commonly known as NTNU, is located in Trondheim. NTNU is the second largest of the eight universities in Norway, and, as its name suggests, has the main national responsibility for higher education in engineering and technology...

, several potential indirect causes 'should be discussed': First of all, starting weeks before the slide, Western Norway

Vestlandet

Western Norway is the region along the Atlantic coast of southern Norway. It consists of the counties Rogaland, Hordaland, Sogn og Fjordane, and Møre og Romsdal and the region has a population of approximately 1.3 million people. The largest city is Bergen, second largest is Stavanger...

 was subjected to record-breaking precipitation and winds, which increased in strength when the remains of Hurricane Maria

Hurricane Maria (2005)

Hurricane Maria was a Cape Verde-type hurricane which formed in September during the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. Maria was the thirteenth named storm, sixth hurricane, and fourth major hurricane of the record-breaking season....

 reached shore. The rainstorm, named Kristin by meteorologists, caused floods, traffic jams, material damage and power outages. The precipitation gradually increased pore pressure between the mountain and loose masses, adding to the damage of a process of erosion

Erosion

Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...

 from surface water

Surface water

Surface water is water collecting on the ground or in a stream, river, lake, wetland, or ocean; it is related to water collecting as groundwater or atmospheric water....

. This process may have been further hastened by the possible breach of a water pipe, indicated by a housing unit losing its water supply at around 17 o'clock on the day before the slide. Finally, a garage whch was erected and later demolished in the neighbourhood may have been a contributor, as the fill it rested on never was removed. The weight of the fill may have been a contributor in causing the slide.

The Hatlestad Slide

At approximately 1:30 on the morning of September 14, 2005, the cliff over the houses of Hatlestad Terrasse broke apart. The resulting slide of clay, mud and rocks went through the ground floors of several houses, burying ten people. The houses did not collapse, which meant that residents not on the ground floor were unharmed and able to evacuate without help through first floor windows. The municipality and the city hospital were both put on disaster alert, and a large number of emergency responders, including 12 ambulances, were sent to the scene. The first unit to reach the site was a fire engine which arrived only three minutes after the slide, as it coincidentally was in the area, having just completed a water draining mission, and it was able to use its siren to awaken residents for then to begin an evacuation. In addition to firefighters and paramedics, the Civil Defense and the National Guard also responded. While search dogs were used in the search for survivors, heavy machinery could not be deployed due to the unstable nature of the ground, which meant that the extraction of buried survivors was made largely by hand, and with tools such as axes and shovels.

Fatalities and wounded

A woman (51) who was buried by the slide was dead by the time she was found and recovered at about 7:30. A second woman (27) died in hospital a few days later. A four year old, Kristina Hjartåker, died in February the next year. Several more people were wounded by the slide itself, and from lack of oxygen while buried.

Evacuation and temporary transportation measures

Due to the threat of more landslides, residents of the neighbourhood were evacuated to neighbors and various hotels around Bergen. A further 128 people in the houses beyond the slide found themselves isolated due to the destroyed road, and were forced to use a forest trail when evacuated by emergency responders. As this trail would be the only way in and out of the neighbourhood for days, it was paved with gravel. Gaia Trafikk, the city's bus company, set up a short makeshift bus route for the residents to help them get to work. The bus transitted between Hamreveien, a minor road at the end of the trail, to the closest bus stop in Osvegen. In addition, vandalism against the abandoned houses caused the police to erect floodlights and start patrolling the area.

Søråshøgda inspection

The slide also prompted the residents of Søråshøgda, a neighbourhood which also lies in Fana borough, to call authorities and state that their houses were unsafe. The police started the evacuation of 14 houses, but canceled the process when a geologist who had been brought in after surveying Hatlestad stated that the area was safe.

Media coverage

Despite from the fact that the slide took place virtually at the same time as Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, it was widely covered by the Norwegian media, and is still referred to in news and articles on severe weather and climate change

Climate change

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...

, sometimes along with the lesser slide of Hetlebakken (see section Other 2005 precipitation-induced [...]). However, with the exception of the deceased, most notably Kristina Hjartåker, most victims avoided being personally named in the media, with the exception of those who voluntarily gave interviews to papers such as Bergens Tidende

Bergens Tidende

Bergens Tidende is Norway's fourth largest newspaper and largest newspaper outside Oslo, with a circulation of about 87,000 copies . Founded in 1868, it is a Norwegian-language newspaper published daily in Bergen. It reaches approximately 260,000 readers every day , mainly in the counties of...

 and Fanaposten.

The neighborhood and monetary compensation

The fate of the houses and road taken by the slide, as well as those near them, was at first uncertain. Initially, the municipality considered restoring the housing units and the road and leaving it to the owners of the hill to secure it against landslides. This caused great concern among several Hatlestad residents, who were part in owning the hill which would need securing. It was also a concern that the owners' insurances only covered damage to housing, not securing properties against natural disasters, not to mention that the residents were not eager to return to the site due to the nature of the natural disaster.

On the 20th of September, a report by the Norwegian consulting engineering company Multiconsult proposed and recommended that the houses in question, 16 in all, should be bought by the municipality and demolished. A new street would be built over the site of the houses hit by the rocks and mud. The hill over the street would be secured by a steel net secured by steel bolts drilled into the ground. Although this was a more costly solution, it was accepted by the municipality.

The housing units were scheduled for purchase and demolishing, except Hatlestad Terrasse 99, situated next to the source of the slide. The housing units below the slide would also be also secured against landslides by a concrete wall. Furthermore, the municipality gave the residents new, temporary places to live and monetary compensation. The owners of the housing unit not included in the agreement risked having to move back to his home after his insurance company paid its repairs, which they were very reluctant to do. However, eventually the company decided to take over the house and then hand it over to the municipality for demolishing.

In addition to the victims of the slide, five Hordaland

Hordaland

is a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark and Rogaland. Hordaland is the third largest county after Akershus and Oslo by population. The county administration is located in Bergen...

 county municipalities affected by Kristin received a monetary compensation of 24.7 million NOK

Norwegian krone

The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"...

 (approx. four million USD as of June 2007) from the State in December 2005. Of these, Bergen received 18.8 million, of which 12.5 were for the securing of Hatlestad Terrasse after the slide. The remaining 6.3 million would cover economic losses following the Hatlestad Slide, as well as a subsequent slide in Hetlebakken (see Section 4). The other municipalities receiving compensation were Voss

Voss

is a municipality in Hordaland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Voss. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Vossevangen....

, Fjell

Fjell

Fjell is a municipality in the county of Hordaland, Norway. The parish of Fjæld was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838...

, Vaksdal

Vaksdal

is a municipality in the county of Hordaland, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Nordhordland. The administrative centre is the village of Dalekvam....

 and Odda

Odda

is a municipality and town in the county of Hordaland, Norway. Odda was separated from Ullensvang on 1 July 1913 and on 1 January 1964 Røldal was merged with Odda. The town of Odda is the centre of the landscape of Hardanger, located at the end of the Hardangerfjord.In 1927, Erling Johnson,...

.

Future of abandoned houses

On November 3, 2007, Bergens Tidende reported that the municipality had almost completed work on securing the area and was looking for an estate agent to help sell 18 properties, consisting of four empty plots and 14 houses. At this point, the houses had been abandoned for two years and their outdoor areas were in need of maintenance. The municipality also recognized that there was a challenge involved in selling the houses due to the recent history of the neighborhood.

Investigation

The police would start an investigation, never directed at any single individual, following the landslide. It was closed on November 21, 2005, however, because unlawful acts would have happened too long before the slide. In a press release, the municipality's cabinet leader Monica Mæland

Monica Mæland

Monica Mæland is a Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party and has since 27 October 2003 been the Chief Commissioner of the City of Bergen.- Background :...

 apologized for the decision, stating that an investigation would have uncovered all sides of the case.

Effect on disaster readiness

After the slide, evacuation of residents at risk is routinely considered around the country when areas are considered to be at risk from extreme weather. For example, when extreme precipitation hit Nord-Trøndelag

Nord-Trøndelag

is a county constituting the northern part of Trøndelag in Norway. As of 2010, the county had 131,555 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth-least populated county. The largest municipalities are Stjørdal, Steinkjer—the county seat, Levanger, Namsos and Verdal, all with between 21,000 and...

 in central Norway in 2006, more than 200 people were evacuated.

In Bergen, a municipality-wide inspection was carried out to map properties potentially at a risk in the event of extreme weather. Securing such areas is still the responsibility of property owners, although there has been discussions on municipalities covering costs of securing properties. Additionally, the slide has changed public sentiments regarding the dangers of building without restrictions.

Finally, in response to the fact that the landslides of Hatlestad and Hetlebakken proved rescue routines after landslides to be unsafe and ineffective, the municipality would establish a 24-man special rescue group to respond to disasters caused by extreme weather. Helge Eidsnes and Tore Kallekleiv of the rescue group voiced budget concerns, stating that recruiting and equipping men for the team would cost about 500 000 NOK

Norwegian krone

The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"...

 (approx. 82 000 USD as of June 2007), which according to him was a large amount to the unit.

The 'Kristina case'

The Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on the Kristina Case. You can help Wikipedia by translating it for the English Wikipedia, or by making a new article from scratch.

Kristina Hjartåker was a female four year old fatally wounded in the Hatlestad slide, and died on February 7, 2006, when her treatment was ended. The question about whether to continue her treatment became a cause célèbre

Cause célèbre

A is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning and heated public debate. The term is particularly used in connection with celebrated legal cases. It is a French phrase in common English use...

, and caused the Liberal Party of Norway

Venstre (Norway)

The Liberal Party is a centrist liberal political party in Norway. The party is the oldest in the country, and has enacted reforms such as parliamentarism, freedom of religion, universal suffrage and free education. Since 2010, the leader of the party is Trine Skei Grande...

 to announce their desire for a 'Kristina Law' that, if passed, will require an independent group to consider discontinuing life-prolonging treatment in cases where a dispute exists. The controversy surrounding the handling of the case, in particular an incident in which doctors from the hospital visited the girl's father at home without invitation to convince him to end her treatment, would cause the leader of the Bergen Health Trust, to retire.

Other 2005 precipitation-induced damage in West Norway

A few days before the Hatlestad slide, a landslide damaged a house elsewhere in Bergen, causing structural damage but no personal injury. Two months later, on Nov. 14, high precipitation hit again and caused a landslide which killed a construction worker at a construction site in Hetlebakken, Bergen. There were also landslides in the town of Voss, but these caused no damage.

The precipitation also caused a river in the area of Nesttun

Nesttun

Nesttun is an urban centre and neighbourhood in the southern parts of the city of Bergen, Norway, located approximately 10 km south of the city centre. It was the centre of Fana municipality, which merged with Bergen in 1972, and is today the administration centre of Fana borough. Nesttun...

to swell and cause flood damage. A plan for leading water out of the river come floods was proposed years before Kristin, but has to this day not become a reality, and Nesttun is still at high risk of flood damage come high precipitation. This has upset residents of the area, some of which are demanding that until the issue is resolved, the municipality should be responsible for compensating victims of flood damage in the area.

External links

• Municipality's articles on Hatlestad Slide. All communal articles on the severe weather and Hatlestad Slide.
• Municipality's page on extreme weather in Bergen: Mapping of unsafe areas, and severe weather, and precipitation distribution in Bergen.
• Aftenposten's and Bergens Tidendes articles on climate and environment. Includes several articles on severe weather. .