Norway hit by most powerful storm in 30 years, causing widespread destruction

Copenhagen, Feb 1 (AP) Residents of central Norway awoke to scenes of havoc and homes without power on Thursday following the country's most powerful storm in more than three decades.

Hurricane-force winds hit parts of the Scandinavian country, with gusts of up 180 kilometers per hour (112 miles per hour). Near Laerdal, a small, picturesque town northeast of Bergen, Norway's second-largest city, a bus with 14 passengers was blown off a road, though no injuries were reported, police said.

Some areas were flooded, and airlines and ferry operators temporarily suspended service. There were scattered reports of closed schools, roads, tunnels and bridges both Wednesday and Thursday.

The storm, named Ingunn by Norwegian meteorologists, landed in central Norway on Wednesday afternoon before moving north Thursday. The Meteorological Institute had issued a red warning, its highest alert, for the Arctic region.

Police reported that several windows had blown of a hotel in Bodoe, a large town in the Nordland district.

Bjørnar Gaasvik, a police spokesman in the Troendelag region, told Norwegian news agency NTB that the public safety agency received between 40 and 50 reports overnight from people affected by the storm and more were expected Thursday.

Sigmund Clementz of IF insurance told Norwegian newspaper VG that it was too early so estimate the cost of the storm damage.

The storm hit the same area as a 1992 New Year's hurricane, one of the strongest storms in Norway's history, the newspaper VG wrote.(AP)