The village that is about to be CRUSHED: Entire Swiss settlement evacuated ... trends now
Swiss authorities have ordered residents to abandon a tiny mountain village in the eastern canton of Graubunden because of fears it could soon be buried beneath a collapsing mountainside.
A thick coat of fog covered the mountaintop overlooking the village of Brienz on Thursday, where vegetation has been replaced by a slope of mud and rocks.
Farm workers could be seen loading cows onto a truck and driving it out of the nearly deserted village. Some areas were cordoned off, with yellow warning signs in five languages that read: 'Attention rockfall.'
An overview of the village of Brienz and its church in front of the zone of rockslide, eastern canton of Graubunden, Switzerland, May 11, 2023
Swiss authorities have ordered residents to abandon a tiny mountain village in the eastern canton of Graubunden because of fears it could soon be buried beneath a collapsing mountainside
Residents of the Brienz, Graubunden, were ordered by Swiss authorities to abandon the tiny mountain village. The cluster of houses is pictured in front of the zone of rockslide, May 11, 2023
Local authorities say Brienz is at risk because 2 million cubic metres (2.6 million cubic yards) of rock could soon break off the mountain, damaging or outright crushing its quaint homes.
The centuries-old village straddles German and Romansch-speaking parts of the eastern Graubunden region, sitting south-west of Davos at an altitude of about 1,158 metres (3,800 feet). It has fewer than 100 residents.
The mountain and the rocks on it have been moving since the last Ice Age, local officials say. But measurements indicated a "strong acceleration over a large area" in recent days, and "up to two million cubic metres of rock material will collapse or slide in the coming seven to 24 days," officials said.
'The rock moves at a speed of up to 36 metres (39 yards) per year,' said Christian Gartmann, a member of the crisis management board of Albula, a municipality that
