DHeavy rains caused flooding in southeastern Switzerland on Friday, forcing authorities to evacuate people in this region as well as in Valais, according to authorities.
In the canton of Graubünden, the authorities warned of further flooding in the Mesolcina valley, via the Confederation’s alert service, indicating that “several floods are reported in the affected area”.
“Several rivers have burst their banks”, and the situation worsened in the evening, the cantonal police of Graubünden said in a press release.
The police set up an operation with their partners, and some people had to be evacuated. Their number was not specified.
The TCS (Swiss Touring Club) indicated on its website that the highway was closed in both directions between Hinterrhein and San Vittore in the lower part of the Mesolcina Valley, following “landslides”.
Elsewhere in Switzerland, the famous Swiss ski resort of Zermatt, in the canton of Valais, has been cut off from the world since Friday midday, due to a risk of flooding, which led to the cessation of train and road connections. road.
The violent storms which hit the region in recent days coupled with the melting snow – abundant this year – caused flooding in the picturesque village at the foot of the Matterhorn, where the Visp river violently burst its banks.
The precipitation that has fallen since Thursday as well as the melting of the snow and the saturation of the soil led the Valais authorities to move, during the day on Friday, “from the alert level to the alarm level for the Rhône and the lateral watercourses throughout the canton.
Some 230 people were evacuated, the head of the Cantonal Control Body (OCC), Marie-Claude Noth-Ecoeur, told the Swiss agency Keystone-ATS late Friday afternoon.
More than 200 firefighters, around fifty civil protection personnel and more than a hundred people from the services responsible for mobility infrastructures are involved.
Due to flooding, no trains have been running on the Visp-Zermatt line since Friday midday and will be until at least Saturday morning.
In addition, the replacement bus service between Visp and Täsch had to be interrupted in the afternoon due to the road closure, the railway company Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn said in a statement.
The Valais authorities have banned the population from walking on the banks of the Rhône due to the high risk of flooding. A ban which also applies to neighboring Chablais Vaud until Monday evening.
Along the Rhône, the flood was expected to reach its maximum on Friday evening.
Other regions of Switzerland are affected.
According to the natural hazards bulletin of the Federal Office for the Environment, the alert for the upper part of Lake Constance (north) rises to level 4 (high danger).
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