- The village of Brienz/Brinzauls in the canton of Graubünden, threatened by a large clash, returns to the phase of red, the responsible municipality of Albula/Alvra announced.
- This means that Brienz must no longer be entered regularly until further notice.
- An area above the village has accelerated heavily from precipitation since winter and in the past six weeks.
The Bündner village of Brienz has been closed again since Monday. Nobody is allowed to enter the village because 600,000 to 2.2 million cubic meters of rock threaten to rush. During the week, geologists calculated what exactly that means for the village. The situation has intensified significantly after the rainfall from the beginning of May and the Pentecost weekend.
On Friday, the municipal management staff announced that the village can no longer be entered until further notice – phase red applies instead of phase orange. Brienzen and Brienzer and second home owners are no longer allowed to go back to their homes regularly. The population remains evacuated.
The acute accelerated eastern part of the plateau (light blue) is estimated at around 600,000 cubic meters of volume. The “island of East” (light green) is a remnant of the rubble current falling in 2023. The “rubble slopes above” (light beige) consists of crashed material according to the rubble flow from 2023 and has a volume of around 1.2 million cubic meters.
FrühwarndeniSt Albula / Alvra
In the worst case, up to 2.2 million cubic meters of rocks could overthrow to the village or even towards the valley. This would cause serious damage, writes the parish management staff of Albula/Alvra.
The community is “concerned” about the development of speeds on the mountain, it is said. Since the winter, the acceleration, also due to the rainfall in the past six weeks, has been increasing continuously. The risk of a large clash has risen sharply.
It is very dependent on the weather.
The so -called “Plateau Ost” has been moving faster for days and weeks, says geologist Stefan Schneider. «There could be a trial fragment. This means that the plateau could crash to the rubble dump and accelerate it. So large rocks could crash. » This is very dangerous.
So the worst-case scenario. Smaller parts could also crash. “It is very dependent on the weather, so how high the moisture is,” continued Schneider. The “Plateau Ost” is a whole. “Therefore we cannot exclude the worst-case scenario.”
Phase blue in the area of the possible
If the situation further exacerbated, the municipal management staff would call for the phase blue. Then there would be an event, i.e. rock falls or a large clash, right away. Then the Albulaline of the Rhaetian Railway and the cantonal roads in the valley would also have to be blocked.
