HILL SPLIT INTO THREE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17438, 9 April 1931, Page 10

HILL SPLIT INTO THREE

TORRENT OF SOFT MUD TOWN SAVED BY DIVERSION CHAMBERY (France), March 11. Hundreds of . homes, thousands of pounds' worth of property and possibly many lives were saved to-day when "the 1931 avalanche," as the natives are already beginning to call it, split into three great rivers of earth, above the menaced village of Le Chatclard. The great landslide began on Thursday, when an entire range of hills began!sliding down the slopes of the Baugcs Mountains. Two villages, Michaud and Berges, were wiped oui by the lit'llions of* tons ol rock and mud. Michaud completely disappeared under a layer of earth 50 to (59ft. deep'! while-Berges was sheared off 'as by a razor.

The avalanche is still sliding down inexorably to the lowlands, but its speed and force has been greatly diminished by the. division. Also, the melting snow has rendered the mass more liquid and it is now a three? tongued torrent of soft mud, 25ft. deep. Each branch is more than half a mile wide.

The village of Le Chatelard, which seemed doomed last night, now seems safe, unless melting ,snow on the higher slopes adds to the volume of the slide, or more hills are undermined by subterranean rivers.

Le Chatelard is now perched on an island pinnacle. To the west : one arm of the avalanche is moving harmlessly over wild country above Aix-les-Bains, while to the east it is sliding at greatly reduced speed down into the evacuated village; of Granges, for which some hope yet remains. Army engineers dynamited a bridge near Granges in an effort to divert the slide into. a. mountain torrent, which, it is believed, is strong enough to carry the mass of earth away.