Copenhagen/Oslo - Rain, blustery winds and poor visibility
forced Norwegian Queen Sonja Friday to cancel a scheduled tour with
the royal yacht along the inland waterway Blindleia in southern
Norway.
Instead of eating a picnic lunch on an island in the fjord, the
queen and visiting European royals who were celebrating her 70th
birthday were to remain on the royal yacht before continuing later to
the town of Arendal, broadcaster NRK said.
Southern Norway has experienced several days of heavy rainfall and
rain-swollen rivers threatened to burst their banks in several
communities north-west of Oslo.
The home guard assisted emergency services Thursday to secure
timber that threatened to drift in Flesberg.
Early Friday, 75 camping trailers were moved from a flooded
camping site in Hokksund.
Several roads were also closed over flooding.
In Denmark, the four-day Roskilde festival got underway Thursday
but hundreds of festival visitors abandoned their rain-soaked tents
in the evening, reports said.
A sports centre in Roskilde, west of the Danish capital Copenhagen
has been opened to offer frozen visitors a chance to get dry and
shower.
Organizers urged visitors to use public transport as many cars
were stuck in the soft ground on newly made parking areas, and police
said that ambulances would likely be unable to negotiate all sections
of the festival site.
Rescue services company Falck received some 450 phone calls from
home owners over flooded cellars in the eastern part of Denmark where
roads were also flooded, Danish news agency Ritzau reported.
In neighbouring Sweden, the Swedish Road Administration issued a
warning of flooded roads including several national highways in the
southern province of Skane.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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