In Lostallo the crisis situation is clearly perceived. On the route south of the town, in the direction of Sorte, people tinker with shovels on the edge of private properties. Like emptying the sea with a spoon. In the flooded countryside there are hundreds of logs and three stuck cars can be seen. Two barefoot boys emerge like spiders from a minivan with French license plates and try to recover the salvage. “Apparently they stopped to watch a Super Puma flying over their heads, and the wave came over them, blocking them on the side of the road,” comments police commander William Kloter. The tone is somewhere between discouraged and amused. «But don’t worry, I’ve been on duty for 27 consecutive hours and this morning I was supposed to go on holiday with my family», he confides, sipping a quick coffee. «I have several officers on continuous duty for 18 hours, they are exhausted and I am proud of what they are doing. You know, the staff are what they are. In normal situations we manage one event well, maybe two, but the third is too many. And here dozens of events happened all at once in a very short time. We asked for and received reinforcements from the Grisons interior.”
‘Months to restore the A13: now all the open construction sites are gone’
And then there is the big, very big problem of the motorway blocked in Soazza: a lateral stream has blocked the bed of the Moesa which has gone out of its banks, eroding 100-200 meters of roadway, also threatening the northern shoulder of the viaduct where a cable passes of the high voltage that serves the upper part of the valley. It is impossible to get closer at the moment due to the still high water level. «We are working to reopen the A13 at least up to Lostallo – explains the director of the Federal Roads Office, southern region, Marco Fioroni – and then we will try to create a local connection to serve the residents and up to Mesocco». «A disaster, right now that tourism is moving again en masse», highlights the commander. The A13 as a north-south transit route, and which often accommodates transit when the Gotthard is blocked, «will not be able to handle the mass of vehicles. There are two temporary plasters: remove all ongoing construction sites and short-circuit the collapsed section as smoothly as possible along the cantonal road. The restoration of which will take several months.”
About twenty displaced people for now
Between Lostallo and Sorte three well-known grottos have to deal with mud. One is completely overrun. Near the Grotto Centena, just below the mountain, the bulldozers work at an incessant pace to free the blocked streams. «Already this evening the weather will change and more rain is announced, we must be ready for more bad weather», specifies Kloter. This is the number one objective also for the mayor Nicola Giudicetti who, meeting the media at, took stock of the situation regarding damage and displaced people. In Sorte, in the part of the nucleus on the right side of the valley submerged by 7,000 cubic meters of boulders and debris that fell from the Molera stream, six people were displaced; there are 14 in the other three hamlets of the Municipality. “Speaking at this moment is difficult,” he says in the press conference. The Molera swept away two residents’ homes and one holiday home, including the post bus stop and an electrical substation. The power went out for several hours and returned in the morning, at least in the village of Lostallo”, where the reporter is a guest of the municipal chancellery kindly made available. The purifier, which is located just before Sorte, was also damaged; however, on the other side of the Moesa, the large landfill that receives the ashes of the Giubiasco waste-to-energy plant is intact.
Lunar landscape
Also in Lostallo – continues the mayor – the San Giorgio river basin, 8 meters deep, filled up completely and collapsed towards the south where around twenty properties remained flooded. «On Friday evening we opened the municipal gym to welcome displaced people and those stranded on the motorway. In Cabbiolo the Mondan stream invaded the countryside, which like the one just before Sorte was transformed into a gigantic swamp. Where there were vast hay meadows and pastures, now there is desolation. In the northern part of the town, the Riasch stream flooded half of the homes there. The hamlet of Arabella, however, is intact. The mayor reiterates: «We are working to make the canals safe and thus avoid other consequences in the next few days, when the bad weather returns. In Lostallo and Cabbiolo we are confident that we can return to normality by Saturday evening. More complicated in fate, it will take some time. A long time. And then we know nothing about the missing. We hope to find them again. And then the water: it won’t be drinkable for a few days.”
Spitex and elderly homes ready
Intense use was made by the Moesano Ambulance Service, whose sirens rang throughout the night to serve the areas accessible by road: «We opened the gyms in Mesocco and Lostallo and made rescuers and doctors available», explains the director: «A Rescuers were brought to Allollo by helicopter. We are in contact with Spitex and elderly homes to ensure care for patients at home who request it, given the impossibility of reaching everyone. We are considering hospitalizing those who need it.” Together with Sam, all the firefighters of the Corps commanded by Giovanni Cadlini were called into service to do everything possible together with the construction companies that have bulldozers. Civil Protection will be involved in the next few hours.
