Latest news with #BrienzBrinzauls
The Independent
4 days ago
- Climate
- The Independent
Residents of scenic Swiss village evacuated amid rockslide threat
Residents have been evacuated from a Swiss village after authorities issued a warning of a potential rockslide. Brienz/Brinzauls, located approximately 25 miles southwest of Davos, has been deemed unsafe due to the accelerated movement of a rock mass on a nearby plateau. Local officials issued a statement on Monday, citing the imminent risk of collapse. In Brienz/Brinzauls, livestock owners were instructed to move their animals from nearby pastures after early warning signs detected on Sunday. The area is closely monitored by early-warning systems, as the village has experienced similar evacuations in the past. Villagers were previously ordered to leave in November and two years ago in June, before a large rockslide narrowly missed the village. The mountain and the rocks on it have been moving since the last Ice Age. While glacier melt has affected the precariousness of the rocks over millennia, local authorities say melting glaciers due to 'man-made' climate change in recent decades hasn't been a factor. The centuries-old village straddles German- and Romansch-speaking parts of the eastern Graubünden region of Switzerland and sits at an altitude of about 1,150 meters (about 3,800 feet). Today, it has fewer than 100 residents.
The Independent
4 days ago
- Climate
- The Independent
Swiss village evacuated over threat of rockslide
Swiss authorities cleared a village in the country's east over a potential rockslide, three weeks after a mudslide submerged a vacated village in the southwest. Residents of Brienz/Brinzauls, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of Davos, were being barred from entering the village because a rock mass on a plateau overhead has 'accelerated so rapidly that it threatens to collapse,' a statement from local officials said Monday. Farm work in the area was also being halted, and livestock owners moved their animals out of nearby pastures due to early warning signs on Sunday. Authorities said the region is closely monitored by early-warning systems in the town, which is no stranger to such evacuations: Villagers had been ordered out of Brienz/Brinzauls in November and in June two years ago — before a huge mass of rock tumbled down the mountain, narrowly missing the village. The mountain and the rocks on it have been moving since the last Ice Age. While glacier melt has affected the precariousness of the rocks over millennia, local authorities say melting glaciers due to 'man-made' climate change in recent decades hasn't been a factor. The centuries-old village straddles German- and Romansch-speaking parts of the eastern Graubünden region and sits at an altitude of about 1,150 meters (about 3,800 feet). Today, it has under 100 residents.
