Government Members Visit Seyðisfjörður

PM Katrín Jakobsdóttir, right, arriving in Egilsstaðir.

PM Katrín Jakobsdóttir, right, arriving in Egilsstaðir. mbl.is/Eggert Jóhannesson

Vala Hafstað

Four members of the Icelandic government are currently in Seyðisfjörður, the East Fjords, talking to residents and seeing with their own eyes the destruction caused by  a series of landslides that hit the town last week, mbl.is reports.

Ministers Bjarni Benediksson and Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson.

Ministers Bjarni Benediksson and Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson. mbl.is/Eggert Jóhannesson

They are PM Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Minister of Justice Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir, Minister of Transport and Local Government Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson and Finance Minister Bjarni Benediktsson. They landed in Egilsstaðir early this morning.

Accompanying the ministers is Chief Superintendent Víðir Reynisson from the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management.

Ministers Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir and Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson.

Ministers Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir and Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson. mbl.is/Eggert Jóhannesson


A total of 276 residents of Seyðisfjörður, which has a population of 669, were only briefly allowed to return to their homes yesterday to pick up their belongings, Morgunblaðið reports. It remains uncertain whether they will be allowed to return home by Christmas.

Rescue workers accompanied the residents of 60 houses to their homes where they were given a few minutes to collect necessities.

Some of the residents still feel too unsafe in Seyðisfjörður to want to stay in their homes.

A family collecting their belongings.

A family collecting their belongings. Eggert Jóhannesson

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