Last winter, we really didn't have any luck, andmade the news. First, a hurricane struck in late November 2021, bringing the strongest winds ever recorded in Sigdal. Wind gusts reached 52 meters per second (about 200 km/h)—so strong that the moss was stripped from the rocky outcrops all around 😱 Extreme wind gusts of up to 52 m/s (External report)

Today

The cabin didn’t fare much better either: the roof battens were torn off, causing the turf roof to be lifted from below like a sail and thrown over to the other side of the cabin. It looked like an atomic bomb had struck, but we fared better than the neighboring cabin, which was shifted half a meter from its foundation and had to be torn down! This resulted in an article inThe Local Paper(screenshot).

Well, it could have been worse. Even though the turf, the asphalt board, and the corrugated plastic were blown away, the chimney was destroyed, the solar panels were knocked off, the boat was wrecked, and there was a lot of commotion, nowThe sheathing, insulation, and vapor barrier are still in place"At least then the cabin might be usable during the winter," I thought. And after a little help from some guys at Frøyse Bygg, we managed to lay down some roofing felt so it was waterproof before the snow came. It was nice to be able to relax a bit.

Gyda is coming

But then January came, and Gyda …

And that was that. The roof was now completely destroyed. I had long hoped it would be repaired over the winter, but Storebrand’s claims adjuster hadn’t even inspected the damage until three months later. Storebrand’s service was abysmal compared to Gjensidige, which handled the initial claim.

At the end of June, I finally got in touch with the guy who was supposed to handle the design work for Storebrand, and the best he could offer was that they hoped to get started in August. Now we’re two weeks into August and nothing has happened, and no one has gotten back to me or replied to my emails or texts. Not impressed :/

Improvements

For my part, I had already hired structural engineer Johan Breistein back in February to draw up plans for reinforcing the roof so I wouldn’t have to deal with this again. This involves, among other things, reinforcing the turf with chicken wire that will be screwed into the roof, as well as new, stronger fastenings for the panels to the load-bearing beams in the roof, complete with approved waterproofing. So we’ll just have to see if Polygon manages to fix it before winter comes around again :)