The Swiss village of Brienz, near Davos, completely evacuated in mid-May for fear of a landslide on its heights, was spared “within a hair’s breadth” by the collapse of a huge mountain section on Thursday night See you Friday.
“According to initial findings, a large part of the Insel (the mountain section: editor’s note) collapsed very quickly. There is no indication of damage in the village,” said a statement from local authorities released shortly. before 04:00 GMT.
The first images show that the mountain section which descended the slope “missed the village only by a hair’s breadth” and “the rock masses stopped just before it”, specify the authorities.
“We assume that this is unfortunately not all,” Christian Gartmann told the Keystone-ATS agency, the spokesman for the municipality of Albula to which Brienz belongs, on Friday morning.
During the morning, geologists will provide more precise information on the exact extent of the landslide and the scenarios to be considered for the future. A helicopter flight over the area concerned is also planned.
If homes were spared, the Tour de Suisse cyclist had to postpone its start and shorten Friday’s stage. The landslide prevents the runners from leaving La Punt and crossing the Albula pass again, descended the day before, forcing them to leave Chur at 12:30 p.m. local time, according to a press release from the organizers.
The runners had to go back below the village as they had done the day before. Mail delivery and public transport are also affected in the region.
The rockslide occurred between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. GMT, the statement said, but it is not yet possible to say exactly how much of the 1.9 million tonnes of rock expected to slide actually rolled down the slope.
“The first image evaluations show a clear modification of the surface of the slope and suggest that the event affected a large part of Insel”, specify the authorities.
The evacuation of the 84 inhabitants of Brienz, in the canton of Grisons, about thirty kilometers from Davos and fifty from Saint-Moritz, had begun on May 9. On the 12th, local elected officials and emergency services made sure one last time on the spot that the inhabitants and the livestock had indeed left the place.
A scree wall several meters high has aggregated just in front of the village school building, said the statement released on Friday.
“We will only be able to say if there has been damage in the village after an aerial inspection in daylight,” according to the same source.
However, according to images from a livecam installed by the tabloid Blick, a hut was buried.
The evacuation of the small village had to be brought forward because the threatening mountain slope was moving faster than the specialists’ assessments.
The village has been “in motion since the dawn of time” because the terrace on which it is located slides inexorably towards the valley, recalls the town on its site.
Over the past 100 years, Brienz has “moved” a few centimeters per year. Over the past twenty years, the shift has accelerated sharply.
16/06/2023 10:41:01 – Brienz (Suisse) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP