Residents Ran for Their Lives

The landslides which occurred in Seyðisfjörður, the East Fjords, last week put the residents in grave danger. Davíð Kristinsson, vice chairman of the local rescue team, Ísólfur, describes to Morgunblaðið some of the situations he witnessed on Friday, when a landslide destroyed at least 10 houses.

“There was a rescue team vehicle, at the edge of the landslide. It was carried off a long distance and thrown about,” he relates. “This is a seven-ton vehicle, and had it been a different kind of vehicle, the man would not have survived.”

“I rushed forth, but couldn’t see a thing inside the vehicle, due to mud and dirt. The windshield was gone, so I thought the cabin was full of mud,” he states. “I managed to pull the man out, we made it out.” Somehow, they made it through the flood of mud.

There was danger around the rescue team building as well. “Inside the control center, there were between 20 and 30 people, and the landslide was on the way,” Davíð relates. “All of them were in grave danger, along with the residents. All of them were in the hands of God, and they were allowed to survive.”

Davíð isn’t sure how the rescue workers made it out of the building. He ran toward the house Múli, which the landslide had hit, to make sure no one was inside. Three people came running outside.

When he ran toward the rescue team building, he saw that a truck, with the engine running, had rolled onto the building. No one was inside it.

Davíð and another rescue worker were then able to retrieve some equipment from the building, such as computers and transceivers. With difficulty, they were able to drive a police car down the slope.

Along with other rescue workers, Davíð took a boat and sailed past the houses, hit by the landslide, checking if anyone had landed in the ocean. A father and son, who were in one of the houses hit, managed to make it outside on their own, running.

“Likewise, at the old shipyard, a boy made it outside, because he didn’t give up. He just ran and ran and narrowly made it out the door, with the landslide at his heels,” Davíð states.

“No one person did anything. Everyone did everything,” he emphasizes.

The whole experience was very demanding, but at the same time rewarding. “Like when the boy ran out of Múli and into my arms...” That kind of moment is a nice reward for being on a rescue team, he states.

He describes how rewarding it is, too, to witness the strength of the people of Seyðisfjörður under these circumstances. “Seeing all these people listen to a fool like me shout and scream orders, which they believe and trust to be correct. You can’t take it for granted that people place such trust in you. Or watching how the residents of Seyðisfjörður stand united, hold hands and walk out of this. That is God’s work.”