On 12 May Brienz, a small Swiss town at the foot of a large rock face, had been completely evacuated because according to geologists an enormous landslide would have fallen from that wall. The geologists were right, because the landslide actually took place on Thursday night, but unlike what was feared, it missed the houses of the town by very little. Local authorities wrote in a statement that the rock narrowly missed houses.
Brienz, also called Brinzauls in Romansh, is located in the Albula valley, in southeastern Switzerland, about twenty kilometers from the border with Lombardy. Following the landslide there were some interruptions in the local road system, partially restored already friday. The road that passes between the village and the rock face is completely covered in debris, and the Albula line has not yet resumed rail transport: it has been replaced by a bus line. Some main (cantonal) roads have reopened, while some hiking trails are still closed.
(Michael Buholzer/Keystone via AP)
At the moment there are still no reports of damage to buildings in Brienz, but an aerial search is expected to be made to be sure.
In the hours following the landslide, however, the local authorities remained alert, fearing that there could be other collapses. They have in fact detached themselves from the large rock wall about two-thirds of the portion of the wall subject to alert: some observations will be carried out in the coming weeks to understand how stable the mass is after Thursday’s landslide. Another thing to understand will be when the debris flow currently very close to the village could move, for example due to rain. Therefore, it is not yet known when the 100 inhabitants of the town will be able to return to their homes, and it will first be necessary to understand if the area is really safe.
The Brienz area had been under observation by scientists and geologists for many years: movements of the mountain and the surrounding terrain had been reported for at least a century, but their speed had increased in the last twenty years. The same evacuation for the landslide that occurred this week had been scheduled for the autumn, but then it had been brought forward due to a significant increase in the speed and extent of the movements detected by geologists.