“It’s an absolute nightmare”: a record flood threatens the survival of Swiss emigrant families

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With their Norrsken Lodge, SRF emigrants Yasmine (47) and Mäx Hensler (54) from “Up and Away” in Swedish Lapland have fulfilled a dream. Six years ago, the couple left their tents in the canton of Schwyz with their two children to start a new life in idyllic Övertornea in northern Sweden.

But that is now in danger of being destroyed: since last week, the northern Swedish region near the border with Finland has been hit by a record flood – for the emigrant couple, who run a campsite, a hotel and a restaurant on the approximately 85,000 square meters of land, a disaster: “Almost all the houses in our lodge are flooded. It’s an absolute nightmare,” says Mäx Hensler to Blick. Everything they have built up in Sweden over the years is gone.

“This mass of water completely knocks you out”

According to Swedish media, the flooding of the Torne River is the largest in 50 years. “The reason for the extraordinary flood is the melting of the snow, which was accompanied by heavy rain this year,” Hensler explained.

As the Swedish newspaper “Norran” writes, current measurements are compared with those from 1968. At that time, a water volume of 3.6 million liters per second was detected at certain rapids. Rapids are parts of a river where the water flows fast and fast due to increased slopes, shoals, or narrowing of the river bed.

The size is enormous, reports Mäx Hensler. At the end of last week, the water was so high that ten of their 16 homes were partly under water for more than 60 centimeters. “When I drove here and saw that, I was paralyzed. Those water masses will blow you away.”

After all, there were only a few guests at the lodge at the height of the flood. “There were only six people in the lodge. Fortunately, no one was injured,” says Hensler. The water has been receding since the beginning of this week. The lodge operator expects the water to return to normal within a week or two.

Fundraising to save Lodge

At this point, the Schwyzer doesn’t know what’s going to happen. “We can only hope that the insurance will pay for all the damage.” If not, they should consider ceasing operations. To prevent this from happening, the Schwyzer has even started a fundraiser entitled “Save the Norrsken Lodge”.

Despite everything, Hensler does not lose heart. “I believe we can do it one way or another.”

Source: Blick