- By Imogen Foulkes
- BBC News, Berne
Jun 16, 2023 1:17pm BST
Updated 33 minutes ago
Image credit: MICHAEL BUHOLZER/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
picture description,
The night’s falling rocks just missed the village and came to a halt near the local school
Millions of cubic meters of rock have pelted a tiny Swiss village, with huge boulders blocking roads – some landing inches from houses.
The entire village of Brienz, with a population of 70, was evacuated in mid-May when geologists warned of a massive rockfall.
village authorities and geologists
The rock face just above the village, also called “the island”, was unstable for decades.
But this spring, the slippage of the rock began to accelerate.
Many Brienz residents had expected to leave their homes temporarily, but were unhappy that the eviction order had come so suddenly. Days before the order came, they had been told they would be moving sometime in late summer.
Instead, they were called to an emergency meeting in the village on May 9 and told they had 48 hours to leave the village.
In the weeks that followed, some expressed frustration that the predicted massive rockfall had not occurred. They asked why they couldn’t go home when the stones seemed to trickle down slowly and harmlessly.
On Thursday evening, the mountain responded and authorities said the village narrowly escaped.
Two thirds of the loose rock, estimated to be more than two million cubic meters in size, fell down.
To the villagers’ relief, helicopters surveying the scene reported no obvious damage to houses, but there is little prospect of returning home any time soon. On the mountain above there are still up to a million cubic meters of loose rock.
picture description,
That was Brienz before the rockfall – but there’s more to come
Even if the falling rocks don’t destroy people’s homes, everyone in the area is at risk.
Christian Gartmann, spokesman for the village administration, told Swiss television that large boulders that collide as they fall could result in rock fragments that “sling around like cannonballs”, shattering windows and causing serious injuries.
Some wonder if Brienz’s situation is due to climate change. The Alpine regions of Switzerland are particularly sensitive to global warming.
As glaciers shrink and permafrost begins to thaw high in the mountains, rock becomes unstable.
In fact, there is no permafrost on the mountain above Brienz, but this spring’s unusually heavy rain, which is also linked to global warming, was certainly a factor in the evacuation order. The waterlogged mountainside began to slide faster and faster towards the valley.
Geologists warn that mountainous areas can expect more rock falls due to climate change.
The wait for the journey home continues for the time being for the people of Brienz.