Exodus continues Situation in the Graubünden mountain village of Brienz stable
The evacuation work in the village of Brienz GR is progressing according to plan. By midday on Sunday, all 80 or so residents and their animals should have left the village.
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- The evacuation work in the Grisons mountain village of Brienz is progressing according to plan.
- All 80 or so residents and their animals must have left the village by midday on Sunday.
- The mountain is currently calm, but it is no longer possible to speak of a slowdown in the sliding of the scree and rock layers that was observed a few days ago.
On Saturday, the evacuation work in the Grisons mountain village of Brienz progressed according to plan. It is expected that by midday on Sunday, all 80 or so residents and their animals will have left the village.
The people had all left on their own, no one had to be evacuated in the strict sense, explained Christian Gartmann, spokesman for the municipality of Albula, to the Keystone-SDA news agency. They also took care of their pets themselves. However, the municipality of Albula, to which Brienz belongs, is still available if necessary.
Most of the two farms in Brienz have now evacuated their animals and feed. The 500-year-old winged altar from the church has also been dismantled into its individual parts and transported away. It is now safely stored in its temporary storage facility, confirmed Gartmann.
Mountain is currently calm
The mountain is currently calm, but it is no longer possible to speak of a slowdown in the sliding of the rubble and rock layers that was observed a few days ago. It is still possible that the situation on the slope could destabilize further with the rainfall forecast for the middle of next week.
In order to be able to monitor the movement on the mountain even better, 17 additional prism mirror reflectors were mounted on the slope with ropes hanging from a helicopter on Friday. This allows the distance to the relevant points in the landslide to be measured using a laser total station in the village, says Gartmann.
Deadline expires at 1 pm
The deadline for evacuating the village is 1 pm on Sunday. Representatives from the fire department, police, municipal authorities and the cantonal military and civil defense office will then carry out an inspection tour. This will ensure that nobody is still in the danger zone.
As soon as this has been done, the two access roads to the village - one to the east and one to the west - will be blocked with concrete blocks, scissor grids and customs barriers. Gartmann explained that all field paths would also be blocked and the fields themselves would be marked with red and white construction site tape and signal boards. This should guarantee that no one enters the village.
Patience is required
The people of Brienz cannot expect to return to the village any time soon. They may have to wait up to six months, i.e. until next spring, for the rock avalanche to subside on its own. Artificial blasting of the 1.2 million cubic meters of rock at risk of falling is not possible.
