Mountains from elsewhereDossierOn Thursday, July 16, around 11 p.m., a million and a half tons of rock collapsed on this village, which had been evacuated as a precaution. The landslide stopped just before the first buildings.
The small Swiss village of Brienz, near Davos, narrowly escaped. On Thursday evening, June 15, a whole section of the mountain above collapsed, but the scree wall remained standing on the outskirts of this hamlet, which was empty for weeks. At around 11 p.m., a million and a half tons of rock gave way, creating a tremendous noise, the only witness of this landslide, which was obscured by the dark night.
When the authorities looked at the first images from the surveillance cameras in the early morning, they could breathe a sigh of relief: The pile of stones missed the village by a hair’s breadth and the mass of stones stopped short of it”. Right next to the school there is a rubble wall several meters high, which is one of the access roads locked to the village.
“According to the first findings, a large part of the island (the mountain section: editor’s note) collapsed very quickly,” said the local authorities. There is no longer any danger that Brienz will be threatened by a major landslide, said Stefan Schneider, head of the warning system, during a press conference on Friday afternoon, June 16th. The mass that broke off overnight represents about 1.5 of the 1.9 million cubic meters of rock expected to collapse, Stefan Schneider said.
“The security of the village is not yet guaranteed”
But the village’s 84 residents, their livestock and pets will have to wait before they can return home. “The security of the village is not yet guaranteed. “We have to observe the movements of the collapsed rock mass over the next few days,” explains Andreas Huwiler, a geologist from the canton of Graubünden, where the village is located in the south-east of the Alps. The rain, in particular, could cause the rock mass to move further. However, the geologist assumes that there is “a very, very good chance” that all residents can return to their homes. “It’s one of the nicest days since the evacuation of the villagers,” said Daniel Albertin, mayor of Albula, the municipality to which Brienz belongs.
Since the houses were spared, the Tour de Suisse cyclist had to change the route of the day’s stage, which again passed below the village. The race was finally canceled because the Swiss Gino Mäder had been seriously injured not far from there the day before.
On May 9th, the evacuation of the 84 inhabitants of Brienz in the canton of Graubünden, about thirty kilometers from Davos and fifty kilometers from Saint-Moritz, began. On the 12th, local officials and rescue services made one last on-site visit to ensure that residents and livestock had actually left the site. A fund was set up to help homeless residents. For those directly affected, 850,000 Swiss francs (a comparable sum in euros) were reported.
The village has been “in motion since the beginning of time” because the terrace on which it is situated slides inexorably towards the valley and its site is reminiscent of the city. In the last 100 years, Brienz has “moved” by a few centimeters a year. In the last twenty years, change has accelerated rapidly. In order to slow down the process, a CHF 41 million tunnel has been dug under the village since 2021. Its purpose is to drain the water and slow down the slide.