In memory oct9,1963

From September 27 they start to remove the water from the lake .. 70 cm a day .. and the mountain moves,she also.. with less speed, but increases more and more with the decrease of the level of the water. We can't know if things would have gone differently, but those 70 cm were not random: they were maximum absorption capacity of the power station below the dam .. there is an emergency in progress and they take it advantage, however, to produce energy ..! To think in something other? Not possible??? The first days of October are full of phone calls between ENEL, the ministry, the provincial offices, police, etc. .. while Mount Toc starts moving at eye view .. workers are afraid to go back to work at the dam, as well as the peasants to go to cultivate the lands under the Toc .. the road along the mountain breaks down more and more every day .. by the way, some workers are hit by a boulder: hospitalized, only the two more serious will be saved from the tragedy, just because October 9 are still in the same..
The amazing thing is that despite all this, it is not yet given a general alarm, and the people who live in Erto and Casso see many things but can not imagine the magnitude of what will happen, those in Longarone still do not know anything. . The silences of ENEL-SADE are incredible, as well as it is amazing that no institution, even at the local level, has any doubts about their releases always positive .. because, even before the evidence of a single landslide, they continue to think that it will fall at least in 2 pieces .. and having brought the level of the lake at an altitude of almost 240, they give to themself a hope.. that the landslide will produce a wave not so dangerous, only 20-25 meters high.. for noone dangerous.. noone!!!!

The beginning of the end .. from that day the landslide began a slow but steady movement, at least 2 cm for day. Also the pipes in the ground move together .. engineers now see what they never wanted to see, or think, the landslide is unique, compact! Biadene decides to give up the final acceptance, yet he continues to say to Enel, in his daily reports, that everything is under control! And in the meantime, find a another bitter truth. On the banks of the lake had been planted other tubes that had to indicate the presence of water inside the rock. And they discover that a few days ago, the water level of the lake and the inside of the mountain, is the same! What does it mean? That the mountain is like a sponge .. is inert, no longer has elastic resistance, does not retain ... Ok ... But what does this mean? That is not the rock that acts as a bank of the lake, but the water that is now as a side of the mountain! Ironically, it is she who is slowing the fall of the landslide .. and if you take away, who supports it?? And if you let it, change anything? Dead end ...

There is nothing encouraging up from the beginning of this last test ... We are in April, and there is no more snow or ice that block the mountain. When the water touches the critical areas, here again that the Toc starts to burp ... Back to the discontent among the people, and behold, the SADE think of a relaxing move: Biadene delivery to the mayor of Erto the keys to the school built under Mount Toc. Was ready for over a year. If you are the mayor, what do you think?What if now I deliver the building means that the danger is over, that the ground is stable. The mayor goes beyond: he removes the prohibition of navigation on the lake, which in practice had been imposed from the beginning of this story. If there is no more danger .. the thought is the same. But being terminated by Biadene! Reason? To have opened to the public a known danger area, the lake!! What about school? We are at the end of the school year .. and in any case a month later, the same school is already unusable, completely damaged, like all the houses under Mount Toc! The water continues to rise, reaching 250 meters .. few meters and testing has been completed .. we are at the end of August, but in early September, the Mount Toc causes an earthquake which creates very strong collapses in Erto, and frightens all the inhabited area.

We are in 1963 ... The ENEL thus entrusts the Vajont to the SADE management, until the signing of the sales contract, that here in Italy is a hard work..months, years... And of course the SADE wasted no time in completing the testing of his almost ex plant. His head is now the engineer Biadene, which ask to put into the lake so much water to get over 260 meters altitude, near the limit of the dam ... But.. the university report had not been told them not to exceed altitude of 240?? Yeah, but that report-recommendation is a secret for everyone, university and SADE apart ... S.O.B.... We can imagine the thoughts of this bastard.. 'Arrival at the highest level, I do it certify by ENEL Board and immediately return to the safety limits .. this landslide has been there for centuries.. maybe it falls tomorrow, but it could be there for another century .. if the dam was still ours, we could wait . But having to switch to ENEL, we can not, or goodbye money!'... In April is authorized the ultimate test to 260 meters .. which begins ..

We are at the end of 1962, the winter is cold, there is snow and ice, which probably blocks the movement of the landslide .. there are not even earthquakes, despite the continued up and down of the lake level, which reaches a height of 240 meters, as secretly agreed. Now they need to empty the lake and proceed to the third and final round of testing .. Only after this 3rd, the basin will be finally working ... They also need to be done quickly, because at that time it was decided, by the Italian state, to nationalize the electricity! The name of this new state-owned company is ENEL.. All the hydroelectric systems will no longer be run by private companies, such as the SADE, but will be purchased by the state! But the government will pay only dams tested, that are working ... And now the Vajont is not yet! It would be a blow to the SADE, but in short I say to you that the state, in addition to the systems, has also assumed the staff of private companies. obvious! Who, better than them, is able to handle something they know from birth? And, I might add, in every damn secret?
Where is the inconsistency? You can call it SADE or ENEL, but the people who continue to directly manage the dam and its land around, are always the same! ENEL knows the problem? No.. Obviously, they trusts in their men, how can you think that people who work at Vajont since many years hiding them the true facts?...Obviously the SADE is directly interested in delivered to the ENEL a fully tested and working plant.. this because the State will have to pay them the compensation for the nationalization, which has expropriated them all the power plants.. there is a great private interest in that... Interest called money!!! The only thing that at the ex-SADE men interested...

But there comes a report on the simulation of the landslide carried out by a university ... I'll spare you the mistakes made in the simulation...many!!! Among all, the material used to simulate the landslide (gravel .. I believe it is easy to understand how the gravel has a compactness very different from the rock ...) and the fact that it is made to fall in two different moments, as if the landslides were two, not one, immensely large, as has unfortunately been .. and now it was considered a single and compact landslide by everyone!!.. However, the relationship ended with a recommendation: that the level of the lake be not over 240 meters, in practice about 20 meters below the height of the dam. It is assumed that, with that level, the landslide could raise a wave that does not reach the villages of Erto and Casso, and at only a small amount of water could overcome the dam and go down to the valley to Longarone .. moreover without particular consequences. Too bad that this relationship was found after the catastrophe because, at that time, who wrote it and also the SADE, they had kept it in a secret drawer, without revealing it to someone. To confirm this, it must be said that, however, SADE commissioned this simulation not to protect the villages, but its lake and its dam ....

in the meantime, die one after the other both the engineer Semenza both the professor Dalpiaz ... Without irony, without anger: two great men of our time. If they had still survived for a couple of years, they might have avoided the catastrophe at the last minute .. the doubt remains ... Meanwhile, the famous by-pass is complete and the SADE asks to re-enter the water in the lake ... And here come new disputes. The Ministry shall authorize to enter it until about a third of the dam, but the SADE always does what he wants, because never directly controlled, and always exceeds the limits imposed on them ... Put and remove, put and remove. Even with the intention of moving the landslide, to drop it a little at a time. But the landslide isn't in no way tickled by all this off and put . The only reaction are continuous earthquakes .. small ones .. but unusual .. we are in 1962, and there are about 5 to March, 11 in April, 17 in May, 21 in June.. so much so that the military police of the place, point out this matter to the competent offices . Which, always in contact with the SADE respond that the epicenter was in another area and that only a fraction of the shock is caused by the dam. Indeed, it is said that the seismographs of the dam do not record anything ... In practice, they say to the Police that is their ass, that's shaking, not the earth . Now the locals are treated as if they were idiots, hiding evidence..

Anyway, for additional control of the state of the landslide, are planted in it 4 long tubes, which reach a depth in the soil, on average, 200 meters .. the reason is simple: if the landslide is surface, the tubes will break ... Conversely, if, unfortunately, the landslide is deep, and well over 200 meters thick, the tubes remain intact ... The good news is that one of the tubes breaks a few days later ... But it will be the only one .. so from now we could really quantify the landslide!

.....Then at the dam was put a seismograph very powerful which can pick up even the earthquakes in Chile!.. who knows, maybe the Chileans have sent a telegram of thanks! Finally, it was given the task to a university to create a scale model, similar to the Vajont to do simulations of a possible large landslide. The minister is reassured, and want to reassure the provincial president with all these good news... Which is a good person .. very good .. but not 3 times good that, in the region I come from (I remember you: is the same of this story), it means to be a jerk! He makes a reflection: 'If the situation is so quiet, reassuring, what need is there to simulate the consequences of a landslide??' .. he understand that things are different, serious, and he goes to Rome ... Where he finds only silence and hostility ... So much so that he comes back without having found anything, and answering to some accusations made by local politicians (they say: he doesn't want to say what he knows!), he says a concept that will be remembered: we can not fight against SADE because they are a state within a state!' .. . I thought this concept was born with the power of the mafia, with terrorism, with the "deviated" secret services... Instead, it is born with the Vajont, and although it is now an everyday phrase, its meaning is that there are uncontrollable powers, inside the state, potentially murderers! ....

The absurd thing is that all this chaos does not exceed the dam ... Longarone is in the valley of the Piave River, not far away, 4km, but life there runs smoothly and without worry. But one day the president of the province of Belluno was commissioned to better understand the situation, and asked for information directly to the Minister of Public Works ... I'll spare you their names ... The minister was recently in charge because in Italy (since that time) in a year, change many more governments, compared to how many times we change our underwear!!!! And the new minister of Public Works, about the Vajont, knows very little, only superficial things ... So, he turns to the state geologist, who is directly concerned, to have a relationship ... Remember who was the geologist of the state? Mr. Penta of course, always that one, the only one optimistic!!!! That, in the report, says it is true,a landslide was fallen, but the inhabitants of the area exaggerate their worries! That in Venice, home of the SADE, and in Rome, to the ministry, all was quiet ... Of course, I say ... Thanks to 100 and 700 km away from Vajont, it is easy to be calm!!....... Returning to Mr.Penta, she also said: the SADE at his own expense has already done a number of things.. they had planted in the ground around the perimeter of the landslide, detectors with light inside, which allow us to control its possible movements also in the night, in the dark...... CONTINUE

There would be much to speak about the members of the Committee for the testing of the dam, appointed by the Ministry of Public Works. They must ensure that the construction and subsequent operation of the dam are absolutely regular .. In the ministerial regulation, can not be a member who has contact with the company that is going to check. Normal. Too bad that, for various reasons, 3 of the 4 members of staff have already been employees of SADE! one of them is Mr.Penta, the optimistic!! Ok, the first visit and the second are well predate the landslide of 1960 ( Penta began his collaboration for the Vajont with them after that .. but he had already done in the past for other jobs ..), etc etc, but I just wanted to let you know all rotten that is in this story... So that their first visit to the dam in July '59, is a trip and nothing more. A quick look at the dam, and then the leaders of the SADE take the fab4 first in the pearl of the Dolomites, Cortina d'Ampezzo (where 3 years before there were the Winter Olympics Games.. so it was a place very fashionable, as well as our days), and then to Venice, where they offer them a dinner in a luxury restaurant ..

The commission returned to Rome happy .. It's easy for me to believe it! But.. they forgot to do the report on the Vajont to be submitted to the ministry! That was the essence of their journey! And what do they do? Make a call to the SADE, asking if they can draw up a detailed report on the dam and various other jobs pertaining thereto (with the excuse to have lost it!) And gently to send it to them! Arrives, they sign it and give it to the Ministry, is countersigned by the Minister .. and there arises a state subsidy grant for SADE .. despite being a private company! Follow-up visits will be more careful .. but in essence, the Board will not control anything, as it should, the way in which the SADE handles things ..

There is not a presence of the 'media' as in our times. But only the struggle of a journalist who writes frequently about Vajont in her newspaper, and often goes to Erto to talk to the villagers, because she is from the area .. Unfortunately writes for "L'Unità", which is the newspaper of the Italian Communist Party .. in those years, in those areas, how many people read it? 10 people? No, maybe 11? In short, I just want to say that it was neither read nor interested so much people .. yet she, her name is Tina Merlin (at that time, the only famous Merlin here in Italy was a senator that has shut down the brothels forever ... but that's another story!), the author then, in my opinion, of the best book about Vajont (a book that explains everything .. and that it makes you angry ...), writes very hard words against the SADE, and they denounce her for writing false and misleading news that disturb the public order (she had hypothesized the fall of a landslide ..)

But the process takes place immediately after the landslide of 1960, which is well documented, and ended with her acquittal after a few hours, thanks to the fact that who reported her, the SADE, is not represented by any of them, because they know very well that they are wrong .. Tina Merlin, months later, published another eloquent article where she writes about a landslide of 50 million cubic meters, but the lack of resonance of her newspaper does not create anything in the people .. pity she was not able to know that the SADE already knew they had to face a landslide 4-5 times larger ..

Although the situation seems compromised, and given that all technicians now are convinced of the existence of a large landslide, they think about how to do if it falls ... And they decide to create a gallery at the bottom of the lake ... They want to create something similar to the theory of communicating vessels: the landslide can obstruct the lake, probably in 2 parts, but with a pipe at the bottom you can possibly have a single lake divided into two! Ironically, I can say, that day borns the first by-pass of the story! The cost is high, but the SADE decides to build it.. Also because the geologist of the Ministry believes that everything was mentioned by the earlier geologists of the SADE, years earlier, and namely that the landslide is extended in length but not very deep, it is the reality ... It does not matter to this gentleman, called Penta, that the others have all changed their minds in the light of recent events! Blessed optimism ....

And the landslide falls ... But I'm not talking about that one in 1963!!!... In November 1960, during the second testing test, probably the water begins to touch the feet of the landslide: there are noises emitted from Mount Toc, therefore yellow spots of land appear on lake water, small seismic movements ... Before I talked about a lake in that area, where one side of the mountain had collapsed and died one probation officer. Well, in the Vajont lake were recreate the same circumstances ... In fact ... 700,000 cubic meters of rock fall raising a large wave, which, however, does not cause victims..a little miracle.. the most serious thing is what now you can see very well along the Mount Toc: a crack over a meter wide and 2400 meters long ... This is the landslide that Muller and the son of the engineer Semenza had previously identified .. The landslide that had fallen was just the tip of iceberg!!.... After few days, SADE meets with all the experts, but on the question of whether the landslide can be stopped, Muller is clear: 'it is no longer possible!'. These Austrians ... speak little but they immediately cut our legs! .....Maybe they really thought it, the leaders of SADE.....

In 1960, the dam is completed, the test committee gives the ok for the first round of filling... The water is put up to a certain height, and after checking that everything is in place, it is removed ... The operation must be repeated over time, up to the maximum height, in order to complete the testing .. In the meantime, here the technical report by Edoardo Semenza, son of the engineer ... And his findings give reason to Muller : the landslide there, 2400 meters long with a vertical of 800, and very deep... A landslide of 200 million cubic meters!! We know that it is just wrong ... He says that the valley was subject to landslides since prehistoric times, and that the Vajont torrent, in the centuries, had managed to dig a trench that has divided the valley, because it liked to finish its journey into the Piave the young Semenza had noticed how the morphology of the mountain, in front of the Mount Toc, is equal to it, at the base ... The classic isolated hill (basically a piece of a previous landslide) ... And It should never be built a dam in a place where there has been a landslide, even if prehistoric ... It is an absolute law, for a hydroelectric company.

I'll save you a lot of dialogues, now very intense and nervous, including a letter from Semenza father to his son, where he asks him to soften his conclusions... one of the worst pages of this story

SADE wonders how it could be possible that an expert like DalPiaz (who has almost 80 years, now), had no noticed something so deep and wide .. So, Semenza decides to call other geophysical .. and geotechnical ... And they are reassured by a new report made by a geophysical, P. Caloi (which has also often collaborated with them) that it recognizes the existence of the landslide, but he defines it of small thickness, surface .. below, the mountain has compact rock ... Music for the SADE, which commissioned further investigation ... And there is engineer Semenza's son that will participate in one of those ... Muller is almost forgotten

Music? Sure ... If you feel bad and the first doctor you visit, tells: you have to operate! Then go for a second that say: you haven't to operate ... What do you do? There is no need to rush to surgery, as would my grandmother! But it is also wrong to stop worrying , despite the assurances of the second doctor ... It is evident that it must have other opinions ... And eng. Semenza wants to be carried out new researches just for this