As of: March 1, 2024, 5:01 a.m
By: Richard Strobl
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A view of the snowy Val Ferret in Italy.
(Archive image) © IMAGO / Depositphotos
There is a great danger of avalanches in Italy's Alps.
In one community, a valley has now been evacuated.
There is also expected to be further snowfall.
Aosta – Persistent snowfall has caused major problems in northern Italy and the Alpine region in general in recent days.
For example, the Brenner motorway had to be completely closed for a time due to heavy snowfall.
Landslides also caused great danger.
And the avalanche warning level has also been raised.
In Italy, an entire valley has now been evacuated and curfews have been imposed due to the threat of snowfall.
The municipality of Courmayeur in the Aosta Valley region announced this decision on Monday.
The closure and preventive evacuation of Val Ferret in Italy from the La Palud barrier has been in effect since 11:30 a.m. on Monday, as reported by the Italian news agency
Ansa
.
In addition, the Brenva area, the return route to Val Veny and the Larzey/Entreves municipal road were also closed.
Avalanche alarm in Italy: valley closed - curfew for residents
However, a limited number of people can remain on site, as the mayor announced.
These are subject to a strict curfew.
The doors must also remain closed.
This affects the residents of the Marais area west of Aosta.
On Monday (February 26), the regional functional center of the Aosta Valley issued a yellow alert due to the risk of avalanches along the border between Italy, France and Switzerland.
“Medium and large avalanches are possible mainly in non-anthropic areas” or in areas where they occur frequently,
Ansa
quotes from the report.
The snow depth is currently around 700 to 800 meters.
There is also expected to be further rainfall in various areas of the region, which may increase the risk.
Danger of avalanches in northern Italy: Trentino and South Tyrol also affected
There is also an avalanche alert in other parts of the Alps.
In South Tyrol, for example, level 3 of the danger scale was issued, as
Rai
reports.
According to the Euregion avalanche report, the new and drifted snow above the tree line can easily be triggered by a single person.
Spontaneous avalanches are particularly possible in the Ultental and the Ortler Group.
Up to 40 centimeters of new snow is expected to fall in South Tyrol on Tuesday.
In addition, there is wind, which increases the risk of avalanches even further.
There are also warnings about avalanches in Trentino.
There is even an alert level of 4 here. Large, spontaneous avalanches are also possible here.
These can also be triggered by individual tourers.