Village in Switzerland to be evacuated over Alpine rockslide fears
Authorities in eastern Switzerland have ordered residents of the village of Brienz to evacuate by Friday evening because geologists say a mass of 2m cubic metres of Alpine rock looming overhead could break loose and spill down in coming weeks.
Local leaders told a town hall and press event on Tuesday that residents would have to leave by 6pm on Friday but could return to the village from time to time starting on Saturday, depending on the risk level, but not stay overnight.
Officials said measurements indicated a “strong acceleration over a large area” in recent days, and “up to 2m cubic metres of rock material will collapse or slide in the coming seven to 24 days”.
The centuries-old village straddles German- and Romansch-speaking parts of the eastern Graubünden region, sitting south-west of Davos at an altitude of about 1,150 metres (3,800ft). Today it has fewer than 100 residents. Locals said the mountain and the rocks on it had been moving since the last ice age, according to officials.
Over the last century, the village itself has moved a few centimetres each year – but the movement has accelerated over the last 20 years, and the landslide has now been moving about one metre a year. Geological surveys suggest the situation has become even more precarious.
Christian Gartmann, a member of the crisis management board in the town of Albula, which counts Brienz in its municipality, said experts estimated there was a 60% chance that the rock would fall in smaller chunks, which may not even reach the village or the valley. It could also move slowly. But there was also a 10% chance the whole 2m cubic metres mass may tumble down – threatening lives, property and the village itself, he said.
“We hope that the village stays intact,” he said by phone. “We can’t eliminate the possibility that it [the rock] will come down … It could damage the village or destroy it.”
Gartmann said that glacier melt had affected the precariousness of the rocks over millennia but that glacier melt due to human-made climate change in recent decades was not a factor.
Experts deemed that a controlled explosion to set off a rockslide was too dangerous because it would require drilling underneath the rock – itself a hazardous operation, Gartmann said. Erecting a giant pile of sand or a wall to try to block any spillage was not considered feasible, he said, adding that the wall would have to be at least 70 metres high to protect the village.
Many of the evacuees were expected to stay with family or friends, though local leaders had received offers from concerned neighbours to provide temporary housing, Gartmann said.
At the current “orange” alert level, however, farm animals are to be left behind.
“The livestock from two farms will remain in the stables for the time being,” the Albula region said in a statement.