The 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 in progress. 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, indicated the attorney general of Valais 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 were evacuated from areas hit by bad weather in Ticino. A summer colony of 40 children and 30 adults was evacuated from Mogno, in the upper Val Lavizzara, in the morning. In this 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, cantonal police said in the evening.
For the time being, the Maggia Valley and its side valleys are only accessible by air. All road access has been cut off after a bridge collapsed and was swept away by the floods near Cervio, at the entrance to the Maggia Valley. Communications, electricity and drinking water have also been cut off throughout the region. According to Meteonews radar, some 200 litres per square metre of rain fell in the upper Maggia Valley 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 Federal Council’s support 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 very 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).
The “violent and repeated” storms, melting snow and water-saturated soils created “a perfect cocktail” for a “very complicated” situation, explained Raphaël Mayoraz, head of the Valais Natural Hazards Service.
The village of Saas-Grund “paid dearly”, as did several other valleys, including those of Conches and Zermatt, he added. The Rhone also overflowed in several places, between Raron and Gampel or at 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 closed to traffic, as was the motorway between Sierre and Sion. Rail traffic was also significantly disrupted. According to the authorities, both on rail and road, “a gradual recovery” is expected next week.
Situation “under control”
Concerning the state of the Rhone and the lateral waterways, the situation is now “under control” and the water level is receding, indicated State Councilor Frédéric Favre. The context will however remain “fragile” for several days.
Further downstream of the Rhône, the Vaud authorities decided in the middle of the day to preventively evacuate the industrial zone of Aigle (VD). Access to this area and to the industrial road from Aigle to St-Triphon was restored around 6:30 p.m., the flow of the river having meanwhile decreased.
With Keystone-ATS
