Swiss army called in as river levels remain critical

Aug 9, 2007, 16:22 GMT

Berne - The army and air rescue services were called into parts of northern Switzerland Thursday to help in the battle against rising flood waters.

Soldiers were deployed in the cantons of Jura, Aargau and Solothurn, according to the Federal Defence Ministry.

Many roads were underwater or blocked by landslides after record levels of rain fell overnight from the north to the south of the country. Rail services were also disrupted. The worst-affected parts were the Jura, Fribourg, Bern, St Gallen and Vaud.

The hamlet of Riedes close to Delemont in the Jura was evacuated when the River Birse burst its banks.

In western Switzerland three campsites and a number of homes in Roche, near Villenueve on the edge of Lake Geneva in canton Vaud were also evacuated.

In canton Berne, the water levels of the lakes of Thun, Brienz and Biel were just short of critical. Thousands of sand bags were distributed. In the Matte area of the city, many homes were at risk and animals at Berne's zoo were moved to safety as the River Aare reached acute levels.

The Rhine was closed to shipping in Basel as the river reached critical levels. The Swiss weather service MeteoSwiss said the country had experienced record levels of rain in 24 hours.

Zurich suffered its worst rainfall in a century with more than 97 mm falling in 24 hours, 94 mm fell at the mountain pass of Chasseral near Berne, 87 mm in Delemont, Jura, and 69 mm in Lausanne.

In Basel, 76 mm fell in just fours hours. Spokesman Olivier Codeluppi said rain was expected to continue falling throughout Thursday though the worst was over.

Central Switzerland, Valais, Lake Geneva, southern Jura and Aigle were still on the highest level of alert for rainfall.

The overall rainfall had not matched August 2005, when flooding and mudslides in central Switzerland, Berne and parts of Graubuenden cost six people their lives and caused an estimated 2.5 billion francs (2.1 billion dollars) of damage.