The Brienz floods, 22 August 2005


The story of the floods, as written in September 2005

23/8

The first indications to me that anything might be wrong were in the German papers where one of the headlines told of boats in the streets of Bern and showed a photograph.    As an isolated instance this did not mean a lot but it was the forerunner of interesting discoveries.

The train from Mainz is a German ICE-1 booked to Interlaken East.   As the train came alongside Lake Thun it became clear that the water was indeed very high and about 5 minutes before reaching Interlaken West the train was travelling in water.  Through one tunnel could be heard the wake of the train as the water was moved.   This may seem trivial but this is a 15 car 1,000 passenger, 25kV, electric train.   As the train reached Interlaken West it was announced that this was the end of the line and there was no link to Interlaken East.

Nor there was, as a walk between stations showed.    The river joining the lakes was well over the banks in many places and threatening more buildings.  Cement mixer type trucks were providing sand to fill sand bags to block doorways.  There must have been a previous peak, or at least a surge, because many buildings were already pumping water out of basements.   Sales for pumps must have been high, although perhaps anyone with a basement near the river already owns one.

At Interlaken East, on Lake Brienz, the position became clearer.   The water in the lake had started rising over the tracks on Monday and at about 1800 the station was flooded and closed.    Two trains from the onward, narrow gauge, line to Brienz were stranded there and all of the trains from the Grindelwald line had either been moved away or were in the highest part of the yards.   The water had covered all platforms and tracks to platform level.   Those trains still in the station yards were covered by the water to floor level.  The pedestrian tunnel between platforms was filled to the top step.    The platz out the front of the station was all under water and the water had entered the big Co-op supermarket on the far side.    The dock for the ferry boats and steamers on the lake was not visible at all.  The water was up to the top of the counter of the office, which, on good days, sold tickets.

Imagine a catchment area of the order of 100km by 100km.  All of the water must finish up in the lake, of the order of 10km by 10km.  There is only a narrow channel for the water to flow out of the lake.   If the catchment receives 1cm of rain it will raise the level of the lake by 100cm, 1 metre.    If the catchment receives 10cm of rain (4 inches), which it well might have, the lake level would rise by 10metres.    It is not hard to see why the lake rises.

Fortunately my Monday had been spent travelling or an arrival on Monday would have been at 1815, right at flood peak and with no indication that it was possible to get out again and certainly no possibility of reaching home in Brienz.

Fortunately by today, Tuesday, it was possible to retrace steps back to Bern.  Here the youth hostel had been closed by the rising river but had been allowed to re-open once the river had stabilised.   This gave me a bed for the night.

24/8

The River Aare, which drains Lake Thun through Bern, was indeed running high.    Most of Bern is at a high level but inevitably there are houses at river level.   The worst hit of these had water visible up to the eaves.

The afternoon was spent in returning to Brienz because, after all, that was where my baggage was.  By now the trains had ceased running to Interlaken at all and a bus was necessary from the outside end of Lake Thun at Spiez.    A special bus was running from Interlaken West to Brienz going right around the far side of the lake and coming into the outskirts of the village from the other (hostel) end.

On arrival in Brienz it became obvious why there was no train.   The Glyssibach had taken everything before it, houses, the road, the railway bridge and the lot.   There was no way from the hostel to the village.  Apparently the road on the Interlaken side of the village had also been closed and the village was absolutely cut off by land.   There was an awful lot of boats moving back and forth on the lake so emergency services must have been doing just this.

One solitary train sat in Brienz station.   This gives an idea of how quickly the emergency must have arisen because the stopping time in Brienz is usually 2 minutes maximum.

Glyssibach was, as might be imagined, a huge avalanche of rocks and rubbish, wiping out everything before it.  

This must not be confused with a spring avalanche which can be a bigger, but more localised, disaster.   In this case the whole of the winter snow, perched on the side of a mountain, may decide that it prefers to be in the lake and take the shortest path.    Such an event is generally very local but can be devastating if you happen to live there or be there.    The Swiss have carefully replanted all of their trees in the mountains and where this cannot be done, concreted huge hunks of railway line vertically into the ground to have the same effect.  There is one such avalanche protection immediately, and 800m vertically, above the village.

The swans approved.   In a field east of the lake, where the marquee is usually erected for the annual beer festival, swam two mature swans and seven now very large cygnets, eating for all they were worth.   One person’s difficulty is another’s triumph.  

From here my journey took me to Malta for a few days.

28/8

The return to Spiez was in time for a connection to the early afternoon Interlaken train, which was back to service as usual, and running to Interlaken East.

Both lakes had gone down and the journey was without any drama.  Interlaken West was back to normal although the platform tunnel was still full of water.   Interlaken East was a little sadder and although the tunnels on the platforms had been pumped out, there were no forwarding trains.   The two Brienz trains still stood forlornly as did the Grindelwald trains showing the watermarks up to their knees.   The Swiss had matched the improvement in circumstances with an improvement to the bus service and the passengers were whisked off by a much more direct and drier route to Brienz.

The boys at the hostel had held dinner until I arrived, since there were no other paying customers at all, and the night was ended by an enjoyable barbecue of sausages and jacket potatoes.

29/8

On Monday, 7 days after it occurred, the magnitude of the disaster became much more apparent.   The military had arrived on the previous Thursday and there were apparently about 150 of them, staying in the shelter.    The hostel guests had been released and had quickly gathered their belongings and gone home.   Those not yet arrived had, of course, cancelled.

The Lambach had behaved itself and all that had been necessary there was to dig out the gravel from the mouth to avoid having it overflow its banks.  Even so, about 10cm of water had found its way into the hostel basement and Adrian had the boys dragging everything out into the sunshine to dry out.   The people in the pensione next door had less luck and had obviously collected more junk over the years, as there was a mountain of damp stuff piled up waiting to be carted to the tip.

The problem lay with the Glyssibach and there was no movement of anyone allowed in the direction of the village.  A couple of military men sat on the Lambach bridge and that was the absolute limit, for anyone.    Although it was possible to go to the village by boat for the first time, it felt a little ghoulish and was best postponed until a little order was established.

My status as a resident of the village was never questioned.   Although all strangers were stopped and turned away, my passage around the area was never disputed.

30/8    Tuesday

Far below the thunders of the upper deep
Far, Far beneath in the abysmal sea
His ancient, dreamless uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth      (Tennyson)

The village was running a shuttleboat service from the neighbouring boat landing into the station and it did not seem inappropriate now to visit the village.   My right to a free trip, or even to visit the village, was never questioned.

The first thing to notice was the devastation of the Glyssibach.  The whole area where this little stream came down the side of the mountain was one huge delta of mud and rocks stretching back hundreds of metres.   It is alleged that a rock was lodged on the railway bridge of 25 tonnes.   Rocks as big as cars were all over the delta. At the first crest, perhaps 100m above the lake, stood a rock, as large as a small truck.   That rock was not there last week.    Houses destroyed were already buried under rocks or at the bottom of the lake and did not attract attention.   Strange it was to see the others, buried to their eaves or leaning drunkenly towards the lake.   It is always towards the lake, one entity which is anxious to absorb everything.   Ultimately it will.

For those who are familiar with the second law of thermodynamics, here you see yet another version.

On arrival at the village it became obvious why the village had been placed out of bounds and the traffic stopped.   Although the Glyssibach had appeared to be the cause of the trouble and had been responsible for the only fatalities, the mayhem and devastation was nothing compared with inside the village.

The little bach which flowed under the main street, under the bridge hardly large enough to fit a car, had decided to challenge man in a way not previously thought possible.   Down the side of the mountain had come the water, the mud and rocks up to the size of small cars.   Nothing of this size could go under the bridge so a barrier had immediately built up across the stream.  This diverted the water either side.   To the left, the municipal dunny was not going to be perturbed and the water flowed around it, into the main street and down to the platz and into the lake beside the railway station and the dock.    To the right was a different story.   The Hotel Steinbock was the first target.  The water and mud went straight through the restaurant as though it was not there.

The most humorous of all, if this can be humorous, was Jobin.   The water came into the back of the shop and built up inside until it was about 3 metres deep at the front windows.  Then the windows collapsed.    Down the hill came the water and the mud carrying with it millions of CHF worth of carvings, cuckoo clocks, music boxes and junk.   Those that would float are still floating around the lake or have been impounded as a souvenir by those whose property they crossed.   Those that don’t float are down at the bottom where the Kraken sleepeth.

What a bonanza for the owner of Jobin.   All of that unsaleable junk will no longer have to be forced on to the Japanese but will be paid for by the insurance company enabling him to set up again with modern day tourist objets d’art and be attractive to all.   Rumour has it that the replacement music boxes, Richard Rodgers and all, are already under construction.

The repairs were continuing with a vengeance.   There were very few spectators and no tourists.   The big shovels had begun cleaning the bach and the channel was back to normal about half way down the hill from the top.   By Thursday they will reach the bridge and by Friday they will reach the lake.   The Glyssibach will work on about the same timetable.   Trucks were moving every few minutes with huge loads of rocks and mud, and more mud.

Shops were mainly closed and the residents cleaning out sodden basements.  Power had been off for just too long so refrigerated goods were destined for the tip.  Even the lake would not want them.  There was no ice cream available in the village.    Supermarkets would have to empty and refill their freezers.

The solitary train in the station has been moved a little further away from the mud and the railway people are looking with distaste at the mud, covering the tracks completely for about 50 metres.   Their job is still worse at the Glyssibach bridge, which may have had 25 tonnes dropped on to it.

The most pathetic sight of all, using pathetic in its true meaning, was to see the older of the two old guys, in his engine driver’s coat and his engine driver’s hat, watching as the big shovel got closer to the huge mound of mud and rocks at the location of his engine shed.   Is the shed still there with his precious locomotives probably crushed but in form enough to work on, or was the shed, like much of the village, whisked away to the bottom of the lake?    Like Tolkein’s Smaug, Tennyson’s Kraken sleeps at the bottom of Lake Brienz, covered by treasures unimaginable.

He should have kept his engine in the dunny!

30/8

A second visit to the village revealed how fast the Swiss can cope with a disaster.   There was no need to call out the National Guard or a summons from the President.   When the tragedy was imminent, not even yet upon them, the disaster machine had been set in motion.   Houses were cleared, traffic was stopped and the damage minimised.   Before the dawn the cleaning up had commenced and it will take only as long to complete as the ordering of the tasks allows.   This matched the speed at which the forces of London were on deck on 7 July.

But the problem is the mud, the fine-grained, glacial mud.   As soon as it dries out it sets hard, like concrete.  The trucks are spraying it all over the roads as they pass and the street sweeper is riding the streets full time to collect it before it sets.   Residents are sluicing their footpaths to try to keep it off.   Those who still have mud in their basements or yards are having to use picks and shovels to move it.

By Friday the difficulties will all be localised and business will resume.   The Ken Livingstone of the village will come to work on the equivalent of the tube on Monday, the ice cream will have been delivered and business will resume.

Why, you ask, was this not anticipated?   Why were the bridges not larger?  One official when asked how often this happens replied “every 500 years”.   This is not a bad estimate.   The great Lambach disaster of 1896 was the last event of similar magnitude when a great slice of the mountainside slid towards the lake.  This is the land on which the outer edge of Brienz is built.   This may have been a clod of dirt about 1 km x1 km x 0.1 km or 0.1 cubic km (10 to the power 8 cubic metres or about 10 to the power 9, one billion, tonnes of dirt).    The lake is of the order of 30 cubic kilometres (30 billion tonnes of water) so it will require of the order of 300 such events to fill the lake.    At one every 100 years this will take 30,000 years.   The lake has been there since the last ice age, about 10,000 years, so once a century is of the right order of magnitude.    A previous event of 1499 is also cited.

On the other side of the pond the Americans have their share of disaster, but compare the two.    Everyone KNEW that New Orleans was unable to cope with a storm of magnitude greater than 3, everyone KNEW that this was to be a good season for hurricanes and TWO DAYS NOTICE was available for them to evacuate everyone.  The results were clear.   It was FOUR DAYS before the rescue machine was put into place.    M Chirac may have oeuf on his face, the Brienzers have mud in the streets but George W. has a lot more on his head.

Brienz lost 2 people in 2,000.     New Orleans may have lost 500 people in 500,000 to the initial event.   To each location the relative size of the tragedy is the same, even if the magnitude of the tragedy is quite different.   The question is, if the Swiss can minimise the suffering and aftermath almost to zero, accepting the disaster as an event that has occurred, why can’t the U.S?   There were many more lives from New Orleans lost in the aftermath, a number which will never be known.

Rodney Jory

The Photographs

These notes refer to a set of photos which are available on the web.

The “before” photographs come from the local Brienz newspaper of September 2005.

The first four show some of the devastation in the mountains beyond Interlaken towards Grindelwald.   

In photo 3 you can see that both the railway and the road will have to be started again as everything beneath them has been washed away.    The railway was closed until December 2005.

Photos 5 to 8 are about 5 minutes walk outside the village of Brienz, towards the Youth Hostel.

Shot 5 shows some of the houses near the Glyssibach. 8 houses went into the lake and another 16 were damaged including some buried.  

Shot 6 shows the local Gemeindehaus which the Americans would call city hall.    It was to the left of the Glyssibach and took much of the mud past its door.   More than mud finished up there, that which did not reach the lake.

Shot 7 shows a new house to the right of the Glyssibach.   Being built more recently on solid foundations it was relatively undamaged but forced the debris across the bach as in shot 6.

Shot 8 shows the Glyssibach, from the lake.    Much of the debris cleared itself from the watercourse and finished up in the lake below the camera. At the top of the bach can be seen a rather large rock, the size of a small car.   It was not there before the flooding.    Another rock of similar size finished up on the railway bridge, below the camera.    The bridge still (July 2006) has a speed limit imposed.   One of these rocks (or one like it) sits now in splendour next to the railway bridge, an obvious reminder.    Estimated mass is about 20 tonnes.

Shot xx shows the Steinbock Hotel next to the bach through the town.   The water chose to go through dining room instead of down the creek.     The underside and front of the hotel have now been rebuilt and the front façade still carries the date of 1797.

The bridge over the bach in the village has been mounted on horizontal runners, operated by block and tackle, which will enable the deck of the bridge to be moved horizontally downstream giving the bach the space of a double decker bus rather than a car.   Clever thinking number one.

The “after” photographs were taken by Ashley during 2006.    There is little evidence of the devastation unless you are looking for it.   It does show what a delightful village Brienz really is.   The Steinbock Hotel features in photo xx.

Not shown is the rebuilding still going on along the Glyssibach where most of the houses either disappeared or were buried under rubble.

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