There were no humans or cattle left Friday night in Brienz. Perched in the south-east of the Swiss Alps, the small village is threatened by the imminent landslide of an entire section of the mountain overlooking it. "There is no one left in the village," Christian Gartmann, head of communication for the municipality of Albula, which includes Brienz, confirmed around 19:30 p.m. to the Keystone-ATS agency.
Local elected officials and emergency services made sure on site that the 84 inhabitants and livestock had definitively left the premises during a final round to check that all the houses and stables were empty of their usual inhabitants. The municipality of Albula had triggered the red alert earlier in the day and banned access to the small village from 18 p.m., while the last inhabitants evacuated the village.
Brienz, May 11, 2023. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
The triggering of this phase means that the landslide can occur within four to fourteen days, said the municipality.
Extent of damage difficult to predict
The Federal Office of Civil Aviation (OFCA) has announced a "temporary airspace restriction" over a radius of about 3.5 km, including for drones, in the village area to protect possible activities of intervention forces on land and in the air. "The closure of the airspace is temporary in nature and will last until May 17 at 23 p.m.," OFAC said on its website.
Two million cubic meters of rock threaten to collapse in the coming days but the extent of the damage remains difficult to predict. Just before a landslide, authorities will close several roads and the railway line.
Brienz, May 11, 2023. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
The evacuation of the inhabitants of Brienz, in the canton of Graubünden, about thirty kilometers from Davos and fifty from St. Moritz, began on Tuesday. It was not expected to be launched so quickly but the authorities accelerated things by noting that millions of tons of rocks that threaten the small town were moving faster than specialists estimated until then.
Above the village, countless pieces of rock the size of garden huts are scattered on a meadow and stones and small boulders tumble down the mountain at regular intervals.
The village "on the move since the dawn of time"
Experts cannot predict how the part of the mountain - called "Insel" - will break off. The most likely is a large number of landslides of a few thousand to several hundred thousand cubic meters.
Brienz, May 11, 2023. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
A slow but long-lasting slide, in the form of a debris flow that can reach and damage the village, is also possible. According to experts, a large, rapid and large-scale landslide of more than 500,000 cubic meters is much less likely but cannot be excluded.
The village is also itself "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 a year. Over the past twenty years, the shift has accelerated sharply.
