By Jonas Thorbergsson Reykjavik, Iceland Avalanche is Disaster for NW Iceland It happened on the morning of Friday, Jan 13, 1995 at around 6am. It fell outside of the so-called Avalanche Zone. The snow and ice slide fell exactly on the middle of the town in in northwestern Iceland. 14 people were killed. These were mostly children. Casualties and fatalities would seem small in contrast to disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes in the U.S. or Japan. However, in a country with a population as small as Iceland's, it's catastrophic. It is almost certain that most of the citizen's of Iceland have friends or relatives there that are affected by this tragedy. The avalanche was more than 200m wide (about 2-US football field lengths). The rush of snow and ice hit the town with a force so great that houses broke into many small pieces. Like buildings in earthquake-prone areas, Iceland's houses and building structures are made to withstand a certain amount of the elements common to the local environment. This one still managed to take several off their foundations. One house that wasn't just destroyed was moved onto another sitting 20-30m (65-100 feet) away. The avalanche in one town was the worst, but there were dozens of avalanches all around the vestfirdi (the west side of the island). Most of the other casualties and damage were to livestock and property losses. Most of the towns had been evacuated for safety and security purposes. A disaster relief fund was started to help those who suffered losses in the avalanche. Within a week, it had amounted to about 200 million Kr. (nearly $3-million US). Icelandic Version: [The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set] [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly on your browser.] By Jonas Thorbergsson Reykjavik, Iceland Náttúruhamfarir í Súðavík. Það gerðist um klukkan 6 að morgni föstudagsins 13. janúar, 1995 , það fell utan þeirra marka sem sem kalla mætti hættusvæði. Snjórinn féll á miðjan bæinn sem heitir Súðavík. 14 manns létust, og var megnið þeirra börn. Mannfall virðist lítið miðað við jarðskjálfta og hvirfilbyli í Bandaríkjunum og Japan, en á svo litlu landi sem Ísland er, eru þetta óhugnalegar náttúruhamfarir. Það er nánast öruggt að flestir íbúar Íslands hafa vini eða ættingja í Súðavík sem hafa orðið fyrir áhrifum frá þessum harmleik. Flóðið var um 200m breitt (um 2 amerískir fótboltavellir). Kraftur snjósins var svo mikill að hann braut húsin í marga hluta. En á jarðskjálftasvæði eins og á Íslandi eru húsin byggð til að þola mikið álag, en snjóflóð þetta náði hins vegar að rífa sum húsin upp frá grunninum. Eitt húsanna eyðilagðist ekki aðeins, heldur færðist það 20-30m (65-100 feet). Súðavíkursnjóflóðið var stærsta flóðið, mörg flóð féllu á vestfjörðum. Mest var þó um eyðileggingu á húsum og mikið af búfénaði drapst. Flestir bæjanna höfðu verið metnir sem hættusvæði og rýmdir. Stofnað var til söfnunar til hjálpar þeim sem misstu allt sitt í snjóflóðinu og innan við viku þá hafði safnast um 200milljónir Kr. (næstum 3milljonir dala)