The municipalities of Gressoney Saint Jean, Gressoney-La-Trinité and a part of the Municipality of Gabby, after an avalanche hit regional road 44 in the Lys valley today. «Around 1pm an Avalanche Commission employee who was in the area saw it the load of snow hitting the tunnel and immediately raised the alarm – explains the mayor of Gaby, Francesco Valerio -. It was blocked Bounison gallery, Gatti Neri locality, which had already been hit in 2019. We immediately intervened on site, fortunately no one was injured. The situation is now at a standstill, it has stopped snowing but the forecast calls for heavy rainfall during the night. So, operations stopped. We’ll talk about it again tomorrow morning.”
This is the only road, regional 44, to go down to the valley. Residents stranded, together with around 800 tourists which are found overall in the three municipalities. Carabinieri, firefighters, civil protection and Avalanche Commission staff were on site. It will be the commission itself that will evaluate how and when to intervene for removalbut the decision is postponed until tomorrow.
«The avalanche physically interrupted the road system – he explains Alessandro Girod, mayor of Gressoney-La-Trinité -. We are evaluating the closure of both road 44 and regional road 43, from Gressoney Saint Jean towards Gressoney-La-Trinité and from Gressoney-La-Trinité towards Staffal. There is about a meter or more of snow. It is an avalanche that collects a large slope, which once loaded, with colder snow at the top and wetter downstream, it unloaded and descended, blocking the tunnel.”
The Clearance operations will be activated as soon as possible, when every danger will be excluded. Traffic was also suspended along the road regional 47 of Cogneordered by the mayor of Aymvilles. Furthermore, in Cogne the municipal roads were closed to traffic of Cogne-Lillaz and Cogne-Valnontey. Orange alert throughout Piedmont, meanwhile in Gressoney the situation continues to be monitored: «It’s not the first time it’s happened, we’re used to it – concludes Girod, mayor of Gressoney-La-Trinité -. When it snows a lotit can happen, it is a sensitive area.”
