Dam Bursts in Northern Italy; at Least 220 Die

An earthen dam at a rain-swollen lake in the Italian Alps burst Friday, releasing a flood of devastation down a valley, crushing homes and tourist hotels in seconds. Officials reported at least 220 people were killed.

They said a 150-foot-wide front of water, mud and uprooted trees cascaded southward through the Fiemme Valley, destroying at least 20 houses and three hotels in 20 seconds. A fourth hotel in the valley was badly damaged.

Stava, the closest town to the dam, was flattened by the floodwaters, which also battered the smaller villages of La Palanca, Pesa and Restiesa. The floodwaters destroyed the main bridge here in Tesero, about three miles south of the reservoir, before emptying into the Avisio River, which runs east and west.

Civil Defense Minister Giuseppe Zamberletti, who arrived on the scene to monitor rescue operations, gave the fatality estimate of 220. Rescue workers and Italian army soldiers who had been brought in by helicopter to search for victims worked through the night under makeshift search lights. Fifteen people were dug out of the mud and debris alive as the floodwaters receded.

150 Bodies Counted

An Italian newspaper reporter said he counted about 150 bodies in a makeshift morgue at an elementary school in Tesero. The bodies were later transferred to a church in the nearby town of Cavalese.

The disaster occurred about 12:30 p.m. in the Dolomite region of the Italian Alps.

“We were sitting at lunch,” here said 62-year-old Anna Lungo “when I heard this terrible noise and I thought it was a plane crash.”

A resident of Tesero, Stefania DeFlorian, 25, said she believed that recent heavy rains in the area might have weakened the earthen barrier.

One survivor, identified only as Pietro, told reporters that his brother climbed a tree to escape the first wave of mud and water to hit Stava, but that a second carried him away.

“I saw the end of the world,” another weeping survivor told reporters in Stava, expressing a common reaction among those who have witnessed disaster at close range.

“It sounded like an earthquake,” a third survivor reported. “I thought the mountain had collapsed.”

A patient at a hospital in Cavalese said she had been at Tesero when she heard a roaring noise and a sudden rush of wind. “I slammed the front door of the house and was immediately covered in plaster from the walls,” she said. “But they dug me out.”

Flavio Carpelli, a mechanic in Tesero, was going home for lunch in Stava--below the dam--when disaster struck.

“I heard a loud rumbling sound--then this mass was bearing down on me,” he recalled. “The houses were buried in seconds--just vanished without a trace. It was deathly silent for minutes afterward.”

As daylight faded, an exhausted rescuer in Stava, accompanied by a mud-covered search dog, remarked, “There’s hardly anything left out there to save.”

Debris--and Emptiness

Film taken by television cameramen flying over the area showed an empty artificial lake and a 3 1/2-mile-long channel of mud stretching into the valley. The dam was washed away.

The Italian network RAI, which showed the film, said the mass of water, mud, trees and other debris reached depths of 130 feet.

The earthen embankment was built roughly 20 years ago to filter waste water from a mine that produces fluorite, a mineral used in making glass.

Officials of the Civil Defense Ministry said the rushing water carried sediment from the mine that had settled on the dam bottom.

Recent thunderstorms have been swelling mountain streams in the area, which is about 4,000 feet above sea level near this mountain area, northeast of Milan and northwest of Venice. The nearest major city, Bolzano, is 18 miles away. The Dolomite region, about 40 miles from the Austrian border, is a popular resort area of the Alps.

The storms could have weakened the walls of the dam basin, local officials in the regional center of Trento said.

Rescue workers were called to the scene of Friday’s disaster from as far away as Tuscany, in central Italy, 200 miles or more to the south. Police closed roads in the area to allow access by rescue squads and heavy earth-moving equipment.

Peak Tourist Period

The four hotels hit by the wave of water and mud are in an area dotted with alpine lakes beneath snow-capped peaks of the Dolomites.

Tourist officials said about 170 people were registered at the hotels. The Erika, Stava and Miramonti were hit directly, and a wing of the Dolomiti was damaged.

This is the height of the tourist season in the area. Most of the vacationers are Italians and Northern Europeans.

Vatican officials said that Pope John Paul II prayed for the victims and sent a message of condolence to the archbishop of Trento.

Civil Defense Minister Zamberletti, who was returning to Rome to brief Prime Minister Bettino Craxi on the disaster, said there will be an inquiry.

Offices of the mining operation that owned the dam that burst were sealed shut by the regional prosecutor, pending an investigation into possible criminal negligence.