A Swiss village faces being evacuated again amid fears a giant landslide may swallow it up.
The village of Brienz narrowly avoided being swept away in June last year when a rockslide dramatically stopped just shy of its boundary.
The municipality of Albula in eastern Switzerland told Brienz residents to evacuate by 1pm on Sunday, after warning that around 1.2 million cubic metres of rock could slide down the valley and reach the village.
Local officials said in a statement to villagers that “high above Brienz, the top part of the uppermost part of the rubble pile has accelerated considerably. It cannot be ruled out that up to 1.2 million cubic meters of rock debris will be moving moving down the valley in a stream of debris.”
Video der rutschenden Schutthalde ob Brienz/Brinzauls. Rund 1,2 Mio m3 bewegen sich mit 20-35 cm pro Tag talwärts.
— Gemeinde Albula/Alvra (@AlbulaAlvra) November 13, 2024
Der Film zeigt Bilder seit Anfang September.
(c) Geopraevent | Frühwarndienst Albula/Alvra | CSD Ingenieure #BrienzerRutsch #Naturgefahr pic.twitter.com/WLSz9iZUKP
On Wednesday the local authority shared footage of a sliding scree slope above Brienz and explained the mass of rock is moving downhill at around 20 to 35cm a day.
Officials also ordered Brienz’s 84 residents to abandon the village on May 12, 2023 over fears that it could be buried under falling rocks.
When a rockslide narrowly missed it a month later, only some farmers had been allowed to return temporarily to tend to nearby fields.
At the time officials explained that the mountain and the rocks on it have been moving since the Ice Age.
Over the last century, the village itself has moved a few centimetres each year, but the movement sped up over the last 20 years. The landslide has been moving about a metre per year.
