Bad weather was deadly this weekend in Switzerland. Three people lost their lives in the Val Maggia and its side valleys in Ticino and one is still missing. One dead and one missing are also to be deplored in Valais.
On Sunday morning, the bodies of two people were recovered in Val Bavona, near a landslide. They are believed to be two women who were staying in their holiday home, but their identities have not yet been formally confirmed. A third body was found late in the morning in the same area. A fourth person, reported missing, was still actively being searched for in Val Lavizzara.
The person who died in Valais is a man whose identification is still ongoing. He was found lifeless under the rubble in a hotel in Saas-Grund. According to the first elements of the investigation, he seems to have been surprised by the rapid rise in water levels, said Valais Attorney General Béatrice Pilloud.
Still in Haut-Valais, a 52-year-old Swiss man went missing in the Binn region. Research is underway, added the prosecutor, who does not exclude that the bad weather may have caused other victims.
Valley cut off from the world
A total of 400 people have been evacuated from the areas hit by the bad weather in Ticino. A summer camp of 40 children and 30 adults was evacuated from Mogno in the upper Val Lavizzara in the morning. In the same valley, some 300 people gathered in Peccia for a football tournament were rescued after waiting for a good part of the day to be airlifted to the plain by helicopter, the cantonal police said in the evening.
For the moment, the Val Maggia and its side valleys are only accessible by air. All road access was cut off after the collapse of a bridge swept away by the waves near Cervio, at the entrance to Val Maggia. Communications, electricity and drinking water are also cut throughout the region. According to Meteonews radar, some 200 liters per square meter fell in the upper Val Maggia in 24 hours.
The repetition of catastrophic events “touches us deeply”, declared Sunday in Locarno Federal Councilor Ignazio Cassis. It is not easy to come to the site during such events, noted the minister, who had already visited the scene of bad weather last weekend in Val Mesolcina (GR).
Ignazio Cassis expressed the support of the Federal Council for the population of Val Maggia and the authorities. He recalled that the army had already made rescuers and Super Puma helicopters available.
Saas-Grund “paid dearly”
Valais has also called on the Swiss army. The latter will be assigned “as a priority” to pumping work, specified Marie Claude Noth-Ecoeur, head of the Cantonal Control Body (OCC).
“Violent and repeated” storms, melting snow and water-saturated soils created “a perfect cocktail” to create a “very complicated” situation, explained Raphaël Mayoraz, head of the Valais Natural Hazards Service.
The village of Saas-Grund “paid very dearly”, as did several other valleys, notably those of Goms and Zermatt, he added. The Rhône also overflowed in different places, between Rarogne and Gampel or even in Chippis and Sierre.
Several hundred people – the official number is not yet known – have had to be evacuated in these regions since Saturday, but also in Sion, where the two campsites have been emptied.
The bad weather also led to the closure of many roads in the canton. The Simplon axis was notably closed to traffic, as was the motorway between Sierre and Sion. Rail traffic was also severely disrupted. Both on rail and on the road, “a gradual recovery” is expected next week, according to the authorities.
Situation “under control”
Concerning the state of the Rhône and lateral watercourses, the situation is now “under control” and the decline is in progress, indicated State Councilor Frédéric Favre. However, the context will remain “fragile” for several days.
Further downstream on the Rhône, the Vaud authorities decided in the middle of the day to evacuate the industrial zone of Aigle (VD) as a precaution. Access to this zone and to the industrial road from Aigle to St-Triphon was restored around 6:30 p.m., the flow of the river having decreased in the meantime.
With Keystone-ATS
