Families in a tiny village in Switzerland are packing up their belonging after being told they have to leave their homes by the weekend.
The evacuation order is in place with a weekend deadline because of the threat of a possible rockslide from an Alpine mountainside looming overhead.
Authorities in charge of the eastern village of Brienz say they analyzed the potential danger with geology and natural-hazards specialists and recommended the precautionary evacuation by 1 pm. Sunday, they said in a statement on Tuesday.
Christian Gartmann, a member of the crisis management board in the town of Albula, which counts Brienz in its jurisdiction, says inhabitants of the village, population 90, were preparing quickly. A similar evacuation took place 18 months ago.
“It has begun, immediately actually. People in the village organized themselves,” Gartmann said by phone.
A map of Brienz:
Authorities advised villagers to take essential items, like computers, winter wear, school and work materials, for up to six months out of town, he said.
“It's not a total moving-out,” Gartmann said, summarizing the order to locals as “take everything that you need for the next few months. If you have some cheap ... sofa at home, leave it.”
Temporary lodging out of the village, which sits in between Italian and German-speaking parts of southeastern Switzerland, has already been arranged for about three-quarters of residents, and some were staying nearby with friends or family, he said.
The mountain and the rocks on it have been moving since the last Ice Age, local officials say.
Over the last century, the village itself has moved a few centimeters (inches) each year, but the movement sped up over the last 20 years. The landslide has been moving about a meter (about 3 feet) per year.
The main threat is posed by rocks that are already strewn along the mountainside, not a larger breakage, Gartmann said.
Prospects for a controlled explosion to trigger a rockslide to reduce the risk have been ruled out, in part because 300 tons of explosives would be needed, blasting crews would face their own risks, and a detonation could affect a nearby mountain, he said.
