Two months after losing everything in the collapse of the Birch glacier, the 300 inhabitants of Blatten found accommodation. RTS was able to accompany a family about to find their new at home.
Hannes, 7, puts the last touch to the cake. Her family will offer it earlier to Gilles, the owner of the apartment she will occupy in September. “We make a cake for Gilles! It gives us the house!”.
Evacuated from Blatten at the end of May, the Bellwald family first found refuge in an altitude chalet. “We know that it is not really our house, but we try to live as if it was ours. We also know that it is provisional,” explains Rachel Bellwald in the 19:30 of RTS on Sunday. The family will be relocated in the valley.
The family had to leave their house in a hurry in Blatten, leaving all their property on the spot. Despite donations and gifts, like a new photo album, “my toys I miss and I also get bored of my neighbors”, explains Linus, 9 years old.
“In the family or with friends, we talk a lot, it feels good, because there are times when it’s not going very well,” said the father.
Owners asked
After the disaster, a call to owners of second homes was launched and the housing offers increased.
“The most important thing is to keep families with children, to maintain school here in the valley. The school makes the valley live, for the future, it is central,” explains Mathias Fleischmann, director of the Tourist Office and the ski lifts of the Lötschental.
In the valley, the Bellwald family is about to meet Gilles, who will rent their second home for a few years. “Given the situation, what they have experienced, for them is a need to be able to stay in the valley,” he slips.
“It’s a beautiful house, the interior is pretty. And it is very tall!” The Bellwald already feel a bit like at home.
A chance, while waiting to be able to one day be able to live again in Blatten.
TV subject: Claudine Gaillard Torrent
Adaptation web: lan