Flateyri
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|---|---|
Village
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Location of the municipality of Ísafjarðarbær
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  Flateyri
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| Coordinates: 66°03′N 23°31′W / 66.050°N 23.517°W / 66.050; -23.517 | |
| Country |  Iceland |
| Constituency | Northwest Constituency |
| Region | Westfjords |
| Municipality | Ísafjarðarbær |
| Population
(1 January 2020)
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| • Village | 267 |
| • Urban | 208 |
| • Metro | 59 |
| Time zone | UTC+0 (GMT) |
| Póstnúmer |
425, 426
|
Flateyri (Icelandic: [ˈflaːtˌeiːrɪ]) is a village situated in Iceland's Westfjords. It is part of the municipality of Ísafjarðarbær and has a population of approximately 200, making it the largest settlement in Önundarfjörður.
Flateyri has been a trading post since 1792 and temporarily became a major whaling center in the 19th century.
On October 26, 1995, an avalanche hit the village, destroying 29 homes and burying 45 people, which resulted in 20 fatalities. Since then a deflecting dam has been built to protect the village from any further avalanches.
In the 1990s, Flateyri prospered as a fishing village, but after the 2008–2011 financial crisis hit its main fishing companies shut down, and many people left. A German fishing company has set up base in Flateyri and is currently fishing in and just out of Önundarfjörður.
The Esso gas station in Flateyri was the subject of a Belgian documentary in a series about gas stations around the world. The avalanche 1995 was also a subject of a feature documentary, 66°23 North West (The Day of The Avalanche), which premiered in a Reykjavík cinema on the 15th anniversary of the avalanche in 2010.[1]
In September 2018, Flateyri Folk High School, a folk high school, opened,[2] the second of its kind in Iceland.[3]
On 14 January 2020, two large avalanches hit the avalanche dam above the village. The first avalanche slid down the right side of the dam and to the ocean where it caused a tsunami that hit the harbour and sank 6 of 7 boats located there. The second avalanche slid down the left side of the dam before spilling over it and hitting a house with four occupants. Three of the occupants were able to escape the house through a window, while the fourth one was rescued from the snow around 30 minutes later by ICE-SAR members.[4][5][6]
66°03′N 23°31′W / 66.050°N 23.517°W / 66.050; -23.517
