- In Schwanden in the canton of Glarus, around 30 people will not be able to return to their homes for some time.
- The Glarus authorities say that those affected will not be able to return to their homes until at least the end of the year.
- Five people who initially refused to evacuate have now also left the area.
In the short term, the situation in the landslide area has eased because it is no longer raining. What happens next is unclear. What exactly happened that night? “The lake above the plug has emptied, with around 150 cubic meters of water. The whole thing spread mud through the houses and expanded even more,” explains Chief of Staff Hanspeter Speich to SRF News. It is not possible to quantify exactly how much material is still up there. “It could still be an estimated 50,000 cubic meters of material.”
The situation among those affected is tense, especially during the current holidays, said Speich. “But they notice that they are supported by us.”
It is not yet known how long the evacuation will take. “We will then check emergency access to the buildings, and we will soon receive new facts about how long the whole thing could take.” A total of 65 people are now affected, said Speich.
Buildings are to be demolished
Large parts of the 60,000 cubic meters of material are still in danger of sliding into the depths – twice as much as came down at the end of August and destroyed and damaged a number of houses.
The area now affected is only a few meters away from the so-called red zone, where the debris flows in August caused the greatest damage. Only last week it became clear that the 40 people affected in this zone would never be able to return to their homes. The buildings are even supposed to be demolished.