According to the Gjerdrum committee’s first sub-report, erosion (leaching) of a slope by a stream south of the municipal center Ask was the main cause of the landslide in the residential area Nystulia on 30 December last year.
The report concludes that the landslide could have been avoided, if someone had taken warnings about the condition in and around the creek.
– I am bitter, says Steinar Gundersen (74) to Dagbladet on Thursday, the day after the government-appointed committee presented its report.
Unclear responsibilities
That the municipality did not address warnings from, among others, the hydrologist Steinar Myrabø in 2008, Gjerdrum mayor Anders Østensen explained with unclear responsibilities.
Reidar (91) lives on the edge of the avalanche
– We have received some reports of concern, and it should have been followed up better, but who should have carried out the measures is a bit unclear, he told Dagbladet on Wednesday.
The first houses in the Nystulia residential area were ready in 2007. The construction process had five stages, and lasted until 2012. The report that came on Wednesday points to an area south of Nystulia as the starting point for the landslide.
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– The responsibilities have been complicated when it comes to securing areas that are not involved in a specific development project. It was outside the planning area of Nystulia, Østensen answered Dagbladet’s question whether the municipality could have prevented the landslide.
This is an explanation that Steinar Gundersen is not satisfied with.
Lost his wife: – Suddenly everything became dark
– Do not get them back
– They have only done half the job, he says about the municipality’s role.
– I lost my wife, so I’m bitter about this. There were eleven who died, with the unborn baby, and we will not get them back, says Steinar Gundersen.
He still says that he is satisfied with the efforts of the current responsible in Gjerdrum municipality.
SKREDRAMMET IN 2012: In 2012, Gjerdrum mayor Anders Østensen himself experienced a quick clay race on his farm in Gjerivegen 56 in Gjerdrum. Photo: Lars Eivind Bones / Dagbladet
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Gundersen, who was interviewed in Dagbladet in March, says that he only received the Gjerdrum committee’s report on Thursday. Now he is going to sit down and study it carefully.
– Deteriorated stability
The Gjerdrum committee’s report states, among other things, this about the cause of the landslide:
“One or more small landslides in Tistilbekken west of Holmen led to an unstable rear edge that exposed the quick clay, and started an underlying (retrogressive) fracture development.”
“The fact that the landslide occurred in December 2020 is a result of the fact that erosion in Tistilbekken for several years had worsened an already poor stability on the slope west of Holmen. This created a situation where the slope was no longer robust enough to withstand the effects of the wet autumn and pre-Christmas winter in 2020 “, it also says.
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