In memory oct9,1963

When you are born only 150 km far from history, although many years later, sooner or later the story comes and don't leaves you more, because it becomes contemporary for the infinite prolongation of surveys, reports, processes ... And then, every year, comes the day of commemoration.. missing only 7 days, and this will be the length of my posts

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What did not make the air, it does the water. After the Vajont gorge, the wall of water expands in the wide valley. Runs at 80 km / h, but it is obviously less high, about 30 meters. Its kinetic force is killer.. a hammer .. before arriving at Longarone, the water bounces into the Piave river and digs a lake in his bed! Which will remain for 10 years, before to be filled with other debris. The wave collects all the stones of the river, and it shoots them like bullets against Longarone .. Those who have sought a way out, climbing the mountain in front, are the only ones who are saved . Are being met and overcome by the wave, but they resist clinging to everything ., The wave not only fluctuates between the mountains of the broad valley, but dates it back countercurrent for 2 km, destroying other villages .. then turns in a wave of reflux , like the waves of the sea, and it flattens all that a part of the big wave, which it was direct immediately to the south in the right direction, had already destroyed ... 60 km south of Longarone, the wall of water is more than 10 meters high .. but the apocalypse is over .. At the 158 deaths that dwelt in the villages near Erto, we must now add: 1450 dead in Longarone and villages, 109 in a village to the north, 200 deaths, residents in other municipalities that were in that area. Largely dam workers and their families...

_______ The story of Vajont, which began seven years before, ends in just 4 terrible, endless, but not unpredictable minutes ....

In the throat, to Longarone, there is a steering wheel lake in movement .. at that point is 160 meters high and has a speed of 80 km / h. It is a moving train, but as large as 5000 trains! I can use all possible comparisons, but you can never imagine all this ... That's what pushes the air towards Longarone, here is the reason for this strange rain, as strange as everything .. people begin to understand .. 'Dam!' 'It's the dam!' 4 are the minutes it takes for the water to get to Longarone ... 4 minutes that you have to decide how you die or live. Who runs off with the bike, those fleeing by car.. 'coward, wait ...!'. Who goes home to her wife, who wants to save their children .. Those who realize that it is impossible, but remain immobilized by their own thoughts .. who runs away from home 'you go, you are young, do not think of us .. go and try to rescue you!' 'No, I can not .. I do not feel .. I will not ..!' 'Go, go, run, we can not, can not do it ..!'

And there are those who walk and run up the mountain opposite the Vajont 'run, run, fast!'. The air is thick, you can not breathe, the earth shakes .. 'That noise ...' ... and all breaks down: trees, antennas, roofs, beams, houses .. and hear comes the water, because there's its smell .. but do not know from where it comes.. It's like being on the tracks while a train arrives: you hear it, you know it comes, but do not know where to go .. But before the water, the air!! At the exit of the gorge of the Vajont, the air is so compressed by the force of the water that reaches a pressure of 2 atomic bombs of Hiroshima! Nothing more clothes. No more skin. No more internal cavities . From animals, to plants, to minerals. What bodies do you want to find in the valley after a double bomb? ?? Vajont is also this: 1000 coffins with something inside, 1000 coffins without anything inside .. because there weren't bodies for all the coffins ..

The other half of the wave, the other 25 million cubic meters of water, pass the dam.. In the highest point reaching 230 meters above it, in the lower one (so to speak ..) about 100 .. there are still some incisions in focus, made by the water that night: the maximum of the paradoxes! They can be seen especially in the rainy days ... And where is the water? Where is it going? It can not go back, the dam doesn't allow to do that.. and then is channeled into the narrow gorge over the dam Who, because of thunder and blackout came out on the street, he sees the flashes of the storm in the direction Vajont .. flashes strange, never go out .. and a noise .. happens in the valleys close to the narrow gorges, which echo prolonged the sound of thunder. 'Damn that storm, even shaking the ground ..' Here comes the wind .. not a normal wind .. the wind of the storm, blowing and stops .. then comes back, takes a breath, increases .. this, since the beginning, don't stop blowing, increases, increases, and increases again .. and increases the noise .. 'That noise ..' .. But this is not the wind, it is something that MAKES wind .. and blows, mixed with a wet powder of light brown color , damp, which takes the air, that takes your breath away ... And a smell of dead, as if someone had decided to open all the wineries in the world .. a smelly smell that comes from the mouth of Vajont, , as if a piston cursed in the bottom of the throat, continued to push ..

And the water? There was a lake where the landslide is drop.. where is the water? 50 million cubic meters of water are raised in the center of the valley, mushroom-shaped of 250 meters high (10 times higher than estimates made by ENEL-SADE ... simply because they have always thought to a landslide that would fall in more than one time ). Below the village of Casso there is a ledge of the mountain that divides the wave in two parts, and it takes away much of its strength. The sketches of the wave break the roofs of many houses , while a boulder of 60 kg falls to the interior of the church . It is still there and, in celebrations, the Gospel is placed on it, like it was a lectern . A sign of the miracle because in Casso, despite all the damage, nobody died. 'That noise....' ... for them the noise is the most difficult thing to explain ... Around Casso, there is nothing ..

the rocky outcrop protruding has saved the village, but has diverted half of the wave, 25 million cubic meters, to Erto .. that is lower, closer to the lake .. but, there, the valley becomes wider .. and when the wave arrives, well it's itself wider and lower .. and reaches the first floors of the houses. The people fled upstairs, and are safe... But in the villages where in the evening the surveyor Rittmeyer had seen lights on in the houses, the wave (which there, it is 50 meters high) sweeps away everything, including human lives.. and those who, for work, were monitoring the landslide from the control room, near the dam... 158 dead, here...

_________ It's 10:40 pm, more precisely 10:39__________ 10:39 p.m.

In the valley over the dam, a fierce silence ... The last puff of spider that held together the landslide to the rest of the mountain, it breaks. 260 million cubic meters of rock, with over woods, ponds, small streams of water, pastures, cultivated lands, houses, barns, livestock and with humans who have not abandoned it ... At 10:39 pm, this compact piece of the world is moving, all together, from 60 cm to 100 km / h in less than a minute .. ... An acceleration of 5 million times! How? Aquaplaning, as happens to cars when slipping on a puddle ... The rock was now full of water, which evaporates with the heat caused by the slipping of the landslide itself. It forms a cushion of steam between the fixed part of the upstream and the landslide. The friction own, for this reason, it is virtually non-existent. So the slide plane almost vertical launches landslide to 100 km / h ...

The first sod fills the valley, the second rolls over it, the third uses the other 2 as a trampoline and bounces on the opposite side of the valley (for those who remember, the geological surveys of Muller and Semenza son, there was talk of a hill isolated .. a piece of mountain with the characteristics of Mount Toc, but it was on the slope of the mountain in front of you .. and said it was the sign of an ancient landslide .. here, here we have the current example of how they form unfortunately!). All this does not happen in silence. In fact, if you speak with the survivors, they will tell you one thing .. 'You can tell everything, but that noise ... What you can not imagine, that noise ..' ... And that light. Because the landslide broke the threads of high voltage, forming a kind of arc that illuminates the valley as if it were day! See everything, including landslide climbs on another mountain, as mentioned before, up .. more than 100 meters above the level of the lake .. and it stops there..

It's around 10 pm, when Rittmeyer and Biadene talk on the phone .. What happens in Longarone in those moments? It is not a evening/night like any other, because in TV is transmitted, slightly delayed, a game of Champions League football, GlasgowRangers-RealMadrid. At that time, there are not many families who have a television at home. And even fewer were those who could see the channel where it was transmitted, Rai2, which in those parts had arrived a few months before.. So it is normal that all the people who live in the country or close to it, go into the bar to spend an evening with friends, drink, talk, learn, and especially to watch the game .. Suddenly a flash of lightning, a thunder, the blackout .. a storm .. farewell match! Are 10:40 pm, more precisely 10:39, but no matter the hour. What they wanted was to be able to see the match! They light candles, someone goes out in the street to see if problem is general or if it's just for that bar .. but the light is missing if not everywhere, in more than half of the houses .. But what a pity!!! it was a very good match, but maybe the light will come back soon .. in the meantime they can continue to talk with friends, or can go out to smoke a cigarette, despite many lighters and matches tend to be turned off by the wind that begins to blow .. is October, is late evening, it is normal there be a little cold, out there.. especially if there appears to be a storm coming...

Now .. we reflect .. really, why block the roads in the valley of Longarone, if you are convinced that the landslide will cause a wave manageable? Maybe they did not want to disturb the landslide?? Because, incredibly, the workers and surveyors who are on the dam have also wives, children, girlfriends that live in Longarone or near to it.. if there was danger, I think they would be convinced to move to safer places!! Probably even they themselves are convinced that everything will be well controlled... If it were not so, the most logical thing would be to evacuate Longarone , Erto and their fractions ... Longarone .. but when ever Longarone has come to this story?Practically ever...

Darkness falls .. Rittmeyer sees lights of houses in small villages near Erto that are very close to the lake, but that have not been evacuated. Even a wave of only 20-30 meters would be a danger to those families. He decides to call Biadene in Venice to ask him what he can do. But also says to Biadene of its rising concerns about the situation... The call is connected by a woman who works at the telephone switchboard of Longarone which, though she should not, she hears the phone call very agitated between the two. She intrudes, and asks if there is danger, if there is danger to Longarone. Biadene says no, and authorizes Rittmeyer to ask at the police of Erto to go in these villages to warn families to be careful. While to Rittmeyer simply says to go to sleep, but with one eye only!

There is nothing, in the course of the day, that has not been seen in previous days .. apart from the water of the lake, whose level is just above that of safety indicated by the universities that had performed the "tests of catastrophe".In truth, you can see the movements of the landslide also near to the fractions of Erto until now not considered. For the rest, the scenario is the same: workers and residents see with no problems that ..the mountain moves .. the width of the cracks doubles in a short time, many trees are uprooted, the road under the Toc is impracticable , and it will be closed in the evening. As it will be closed for safety reasons, the road through Longarone, throughout the village, diverting traffic through neighboring valleys .. The precaution has a reason .. a little bit of water could leak from the dam, so is better to block the road. And also the other one that from Longarone rises above the dam .. and at the same time, to warn people of a small village in front of Longarone, located just below the dam, to not worry about the possible leakage .. This decision was made by ENEL-SADE and notified to the police of the province of Belluno by the foreman Caruso. He is returning to Venice. At the dam remain to control some surveyors, including Rittmeyer ..

What a beautiful day, there is the sun. And the autumn, with its colors, is better than a summer day .. Continues the comings and goings of residents and farmers under Mount Toc, but there are also those who do not want to leave their homes. To avoid any liability, Biadene asks to the mayor of Erto, to issue an evacuation orders, which replaces the simple alert of the day before. Biadene also talks with Penta, which still finds excuses for not going to the Vajont (set a meeting for the day 11). Penta heartens him, tells him that the situation seen from Rome, did not seem so alarming (with 700 km far from Vajont, is hard to see ...). But all the people of the Ministry of Public Works take it easy. Also because Biadene, to them, has always hidden the truth! Then writes to the foreman went on vacation, Pancini, to return, that the situation is much worse. Use a typewriter, but at the end adds by hand 'that God send us good.' The yield mystical, relying on God Almighty that makes the least possible ruin.. but his thoughts are for the life of the dam, not to people's lives! However, heartened by Penta, leaves the Vajont and returns to Venice

LETTER ENEL-SADE OCT8, 1963, 12 pm Urgent, the mayor of Erto. Acceleration of the landslide under Monte Toc, requires evacuation of people ... etc ..

As a result, the common of Erto puts up throughout the valley this poster...
COMMON ERTO-CASSO, NOTICE OF DANGEROUS bring to the attention of the people that the technical departments of the ENEL-SADE, indicate the instability of the slopes of Monte Toc. It is therefore prudent to leave the area ... etc... It warns again all the people which is extremely dangerous to go down on the shores of the lake .. The waves can go up to tens of meters and overwhelm even the most experienced swimmers ... etc ...

On these days, the benchmarks indicate an increase of average advancement of the landslide of 60 cm. .. had never reached those measures .. the workers of the plant are afraid, do not want to go back there, because they see with their own eyes, rolling boulders and trees bending. Even the most qualified technicians are alarmed, but they continue to trust that the landslide will fall a little at a time as engineers and geologists (much of them biased or, I would add, too optimistic .. the worst must be always weighted in order to avoid the worst!!) have always supported, talking about a possible wave of 20 meters, with only a few drops of water that crosses the dam, and not such as to affect Longarone, Erto and Casso ..

In Erto, however, the major sends directly his men to check in person, because he no longer believes in all these negations. In fact, they report that they are fearful of crackle from the bowels of Toc, as if something was going to break.. say that the landslide seems to walk .. say that, for them, is going to be a disaster! The people who live there, or who work the land, fled, taking with them everything I can .. and then go back to get more. And every time they make a trip, the cracks in the mountain, and also on the road, are getting bigger, so that the wheels of their trucks, or simple carts, remain blocked, stuck in it ... The construction workers warn their leader, Caruso, who would be better to evacuate the Toc ... Caruso called Biadene, and the next day will be send out a statement to the municipality of Erto...

In these days, when everything seems to collapse upon them, the only significant notes about men of ENEL-SADE are these: the site manager, Pancini, goes to America on vacation. The emergency is clearly established, but he goes on vacation ... Pancini asks to the famous geologist Mr.Penta to make another visit to the Vajont. At the construction site he is replaces by engineer Caruso. Which, however, goes back and forth from Venice ... A surveyor of the plant, Rittmeyer, is revoked the transfer, already established for some time, in Venice. Biadene goes to Rome to convince Mr.Penta to go to Vajont through the stresses of another member of ENEL-SADE, the engineer Baroncini ... Penta claims to be ill! In practice, at the Vajont, there is none of the important people ..! I made a lot of names, which I have always preferred to avoid. In fact many are missing, that will become important in the negative, after the tragic event .. but now we come to the last days .. I would like to comment almost the last in real time, 49 years later, in a e(U)rotic forum .. who would have guessed??
Meanwhile, the prefect of Udine, in the region close to the Veneto and the Vajont, is urged by members of the town to ask to someone more clear things about the vajont. It is addressed to a competent body whose local leader, Pellegrineschi, responds that several earthquakes of that period are very common in the area. And for small landslides that follow one another on a daily basis, there is no need to worry. And, on the recommendation of an office of the ENEL-SADE, submit to the prefect geological report made by Dalpiaz .. in 1937!! The prefect receives telegrams alarmed by the policemen, the police headquarters, where he writes that the soil of Mount Toc slips, falls, has large cracks. But the prefect believes Pellegrineschi! It continues to do so even when the ENEL-SADE, shortly after, informs him of a considerable acceleration of the landslide!