The helicopters multiplied the rotations above the Marmolada glacier, in the Dolomites, Monday, July 4, the day after its collapse on walkers. The disaster left at least seven people dead and eight injured.
>> Collapse of a glacier in Italy: “It’s a dramatic sign of a problem that is much more global”, says a high mountain guide
A dozen people are also reported missing by their relatives, although their presence there when the glacier broke is not confirmed at this stage. Among the injured, two Germans, a 67-year-old man and a 58-year-old woman, are still in serious condition.
Rescuers have not yet been able to reach the disaster area due to the risk of further collapse of the glacier, but the authorities promise that they will not stop the search. The bodies found descended more than 1000 meters of slope. Some are not yet identified. Equipped with drones equipped with thermal cameras and helicopters, the rescuers, who hope to locate possible survivors in the mass of ice and fallen rocks, have sometimes had to stop in the face of bad weather conditions, and stay sheltered in the center. of the Civil Protection of Canazei, which coordinates the Alpine rescue. The rain thus prevented them from inspecting the places as much as they wished in search of the missing.
“The situation is dire”concedes Rafaele De Col, the director general of civil protection of Trento, who loses hope hour by hour. “It is possible that the missing were not taken away, but it is impossible that they would have survived if they were taken away”, he says, adding that the glacier is still fragile. The latter has three fractures, which is dangerous.
Near the rescue center of Canazei, along a river, a burning chapel is set up in an ice stadium. Loved ones and families come in and out. They are accompanied by Adriana Mania, a volunteer emergency psychologist. “There are the most affected victims, the families, but also those who witnessed the avalanche, because it is a shock and a trauma”explains Adriana Mania. “The witnesses felt helpless, they couldn’t do anything, in such a situation it’s very difficult!” The psychologist and her colleagues are also there to take care of the rescuers: “We are a little more trained in quotes, but we are not robots and we are all concerned!
A confidence that also demonstrates the concern among the inhabitants of the Marmolada, nicknamed “the queen of the Dolomites”, the largest glacier in this mountain range in northern Italy : “No one ever told me about the dangers of whole pieces of the glacier collapsing, only small pieces that could fall… But to come to that point, it was absurd to imagine it!exclaims Umberto, who was born in the valley below the glacier.
According to civil protection, it will be necessary to be more and more careful in the high mountains where this kind of phenomenon remains extremely rare, although lightning, lightning and storms are much more frequent than before. The disaster, which occurred the day after a record temperature of 10°C at the top of the glacier, in the midst of an early heat wave on the Italian peninsula, is “without a doubt” linked to “the degradation of the environment and the climatic situation“, declared Mario Draghi on the spot on Monday, who expressed his “supportto the families of the victims.