Italian Rescue Workers Seek Survivors in Ruins of Flooded Alpine Valley

The mud lay across the valley floor like a mass of wet, gray concrete as rescue workers dug into the ruins of three hotels here in the Italian Alps on Saturday, searching for more victims of Friday’s flood disaster.

At least 140 people were confirmed dead by Italian authorities late Saturday, and 60 others were still missing and presumed dead. Nineteen survivors had been rescued by Saturday night, and only 60 of the dead were identified.

Earlier casualty estimates had run higher; however, International Red Cross officials at the scene said the death toll could be as high as 250 by the time rescuers finish their work.

Local reports that 40 children in a bus were buried under a rush of water and debris turned out to be unfounded. As far as could be learned, no single group of children were among the victims.

Torrent of Water, Mud

The three hotels and at least 20 houses were wiped out by a torrent of water and mud that exploded down the narrow Stava Valley, after a dam holding back a reservoir system burst just after noon Friday. A fourth hotel was badly damaged.

Civil defense authorities estimated that about 300 people--most of them residents, tourists and hotel workers--were in Stava when the disaster struck.

Firemen, soldiers and volunteers used bulldozers, trench diggers, shovels and their bare hands in their search for victims in the sea of mud.

Rescue workers went about their work gingerly, and from time to time they would stop and watch as medics wrapped an uncovered body in a white sheet and firemen bore the litter away from the valley to a makeshift morgue in a nearby church.

Tourists congregated in the flower-lined path along the upper sides of Stava Valley, watching silently as the rescuers went about their task.

Three victims were found alive early Saturday morning, and the Italian press immediately called them “the miracle of the dawn.”

One of the three, Maria Assunta Cara, 30, of Sardinia, had been buried neck-deep in mud for 18 hours. She was taken to a hospital in nearby Trento.

Meanwhile, authorities in Trento and Rome began an investigation into the reasons for the collapse of the earthen dam, which inundated the Fiemme Valley near the Dolomite Mountains, a major spur of the Alps in northeastern Italy. Officials said that a retaining wall of the dam, which kept in place two artificial lakes used to filter industrial waste, gave way about half a mile from Stava.

Several theories were advanced for what happened, including the pressure of recent rainstorms, chemical deterioration of the dam facing, and a weakness in the drainage system that led to undue pressure. But no single cause was immediately found for the collapse.

City officials here denied reports that an inspection of the dam was made shortly before the structure disintegrated. One of the officials, Claudio Romanese, said the dam’s safety condition is a matter for Italian national inspectors to consider, not the responsibility of local authorities.

The Italian press predicted there will be a long political wrangle over whose responsibility it was to ensure that the retaining wall was in proper condition.

In Tesero, the village at the confluence of the Stava and Avisio rivers, which serves as the command post for the rescue and clean-up operations, Col. Fulvio Vezzacini said that about 2,000 troops with mountain training are in the area providing services to the stricken communities.

He said the soldiers are assisting the homeless and searching for victims and have the help of at least a dozen helicopters, which prowl the lower reaches of the rivers in search of any victims whose bodies may have washed ashore farther down the valley.

Vezzacini estimated that as many as 10,000 rescue personnel of all kind are in the area--which lies in the German-speaking part of Italy, also known as the Alto Adige.

In the stricken valley, one could see the clear marks of the high water that lasted for only minutes but did so much damage Friday. The floor of the valley was wiped clean of trees, houses, hotels and other signs of habitation.

About halfway up the valley, the hills abruptly turn from the gray-brown color of mud to their natural summer green, and there, vacationers stroll among Alpine flowers and watch the rescue workers below.

Hotels Disappeared

Stava, at the head of the valley, is a hamlet of chalets, cottages and small hotels where Italians and some Germans spend their summer vacations.

Three of the community’s small hotels--the Miramonti, the Erika and the Stava--were destroyed, seeming to have disappeared from the valley floor. The popular Dolomiti hotel was seriously damaged.

Standing on a mountain path, looking downward at the mud-covered valley, Dolores Guanieri, a local resident, said Saturday:

“It all happened so quickly. One minute, everything was normal, people sitting down to lunch. The next minute, it was all a nightmare.

“Those poor people in the hotels and houses in the bottom of the valley never had a chance. Those of us whose houses were higher up on the hillside were lucky. We are alive.”

Bridge Fortunately Held

Italian army officers said it was fortunate that the main bridge in Tesero, three miles south of Stava, did not collapse from the pressure of the floodwaters.

However, mud stains reached almost 100 feet up to the footings of the bridge, showing the high-water mark of the flood’s force.

Overlooking the devastated valley is a tiny chapel. During the day, the rescue workers, survivors and visitors stepped quietly inside and knelt for a moment or two to pray for the victims.