Swiss villagers had to prepare to evacuate after warning of rockslides in the Alps – again

GENEVA (AP) — Authorities in eastern Switzerland on Saturday ordered residents of a small village to prepare to evacuate as a rockslide in the Alps looming overhead threatened to break loose and land on their homes.

It was the second time that residents of Brienz received evacuation orders after that a similar threat last summer.

Local officials told villagers in a statement that “high above Brienz the upper part of the upper part of the rubble has accelerated significantly. It cannot be ruled out that as much as 1.2 million cubic meters of rock rubble will flow through the valley in a debris stream.”

Measurements by the municipality’s early warning service showed that the top of the rubble has sometimes been moving at a speed of more than 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) per day since the second half of September, public broadcaster SRF reported.

They said if the landslide starts to accelerate, it could reach the village soon.

The centuries-old village is spread across the German- and Romansh-speaking parts of the eastern Graubünden region, southwest of Davos at an altitude of about 1,150 meters (about 3,800 feet). Today it has fewer than 100 inhabitants.

The mountain and the rocks on it have been moving since the last ice age, local officials say.

Over the past century, the village itself has been moving a few inches every year, but over the past twenty years the movement has become increasingly rapid. The landslide moves about one meter per year.