The residents received orders to evacuate by Friday 6 pm at the latest, the crisis management board in the town of Albula, to which the community of Brienz belongs, said. 

The reason for this drastic measure is that Brienz is precariously located at the foot of a massive Alpine rock, which has been shifting for centuries but now has come dangerously close to the village.

Experts now believe the event will likely occur in the coming weeks — perhaps even this month — possibly unlashing about 2 million cubic metres of rocks onto the village.

Geologists aren’t sure just how destructive the landslide will be, so they ordered residents to leave just in case.

In the best case, rocks will fall in small chunks, and not even reach the settlement.

In the worst-case scenario, however, the entire mountain side would detach, tumbling down and destroying the village.

While the evacuation order is an extreme measure, authorities want to ensure the population is safe — especially as previous disasters have shown the dire consequences of natural disasters.

In #Switzerland, a very large, incipient rockslide has triggered the evacuation of the village of #Brienz (Brinzauls):- https://t.co/EsrZa4fs3o pic.twitter.com/ZCVJFPvL89

— Dave Petley (@davepetley) May 10, 2023

Deadly catastrophes

In February 1999, the Valais village of Evolène was struck by a massive avalanche.

Even though the community’s mayor was informed ahead of time that the risk of an avalanche was very high, he didn’t order evacuations.

As a result, 12 people were killed.

A year later, in October 2000, a 10,000-cubic-metre landslide, loosened by days of torrential downpours, fell on the village of Gondo, in Ticino.

Its force even destroyed the wall built expressly to protect the village from such landslides.

Thirteen people lost their lives in the disaster.

And more recently, in August 2017, eight hikers died when 4-million-cubic-metresof mud and rocks fell on the Alpine village of Bondo in Graubünden.

About 100 residents had to be evacuated, with roads, houses, and bridges destroyed in the process.