Wet 'n Wild

And wet it was...

Last night the police was calling the situation 'hopeless', water rushing into houses, cars being filled up above the steering wheel and basements being flooded. It was about to get worse.

Roads have been closed all over the city, all over the county. Two main roads down the street from here were closed during the morning. People were told to stay at home. Houses have water reaching 1.5 meters (5 feet) up the walls, people are leaving their cars and using boats to get away.

A mall is in danger of collapsing. The river has dug its way under the building; leading to one of the pillars holding it up sinking half a meter (2 feet) into the ground. One of the shops is almost completely under water.

At 2am a mountain side collapsed and destroyed five apartments. 10 people were buried as rocks, mud and water came rushing into their houses when they were sleeping. Nine people; four children and five adults, were brought to hospital. A four year old girl is critically injured and her condition is unstable. One woman was found dead early this morning.

The city already had rescue workers in the area and 75 people were evacuated. Around 100 took refuge in five houses; it's not possible to get them out yet. The 'Sivil Defence' and the National Guard were called in last night and they have managed to get food in to those who are trapped. They're not in danger any more and the police has got helicopters helping secure the area.

One woman told of hearing shouting, then jumping out of the second floor windows with her family as the rocks and water broke down the front door. Another woman was riding her bike, the water reaching above the seat.

Bergen also broke its September record for rain during 24 hours, as was predicted. We were expected to get around 100mm (4 inches) but this morning we were told the new record was 156.5mm - 6.1 inches. The last record from 30 years ago was passed a few hours - and 40 mm (1.6 inches)- ago.


Apart from a few closed roads and a lot of wet clothes, most of us got away from hurricane Maria without a scratch. Now we just have to boil our water again. They've installed a cleaning system to get rid of the Giardia parasite from a year ago, but the flooding knocked out the system and we're asked to boil our water until they can fix it.

This city is used to rain.
Bergen knows rain.
But this was some rain...