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AVALANCHE UPDATE: Memorial service for Atle Husby, cleanup of wrecked homes to begin tomorrow

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A memorial service for Atle Husby, 42, a musician Longyearbyen School teacher who was killed in Saturday’s avalanche, is scheduled at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Svalbard Church.

Husby, who has three young children, was fatally trapped in one of the ten homes buried by a wave of snow up to four meters high in the Saturday morning avalanche.

“He was a wonderful teacher for our students, and a sociable, knowledgeable, fun and inclusive colleague that we all appreciated,” Headmaster Anne Søvold Vikanes told Verdens Gang. The void left by him at school will be huge.”

Also killed as a result of the snowslide was Nikoline Røkenes, 2, who was buried for two hours in her parents’ home with her sister Pernille, 3. Both were transported to Tromsø hospital for treatment, but Nikoline was pronounced dead Sunday.

Efforts to remove the damaged homes will begin Tuesday, according to a statement released by the city Monday. The first priority will be providing access to Vei 230 homes nos. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14.

“It is a house that is blocking the way to the said row of houses,” the statement notes. “The house owned by Store Norske and has been unoccupied for a while.”

People with property in the evacuated areas who need temporary housing can contact Tine Mari Thornes at 7902 2150 or tine.mari.thornes@lokalstyre.no.

Counseling is also being offered by Svalbard Church at 7902 5560, with licensed help available through Longyearbyen Hospital at 7902 4200.

 

About Post Author

Mark Sabbatini

I'm a professional transient living on a tiny Norwegian island next door to the North Pole, where once a week (or thereabouts) I pollute our extreme and pristine environment with paper fishwrappers decorated with seemingly random letters that would cause a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters to die of humiliation. Such is the wisdom one acquires after more than 25 years in the world's second-least-respected occupation, much of it roaming the seven continents in search of jazz, unrecognizable street food and escorts I f****d with by insisting they give me the platonic tours of their cities promised in their ads. But it turns out this tiny group of islands known as Svalbard is my True Love and, generous contributions from you willing, I'll keep littering until they dig my body out when my climate-change-deformed apartment collapses or they exile my penniless ass because I'm not even worthy of washing your dirty dishes.
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