Residents of the valley are in shock and comfort themselves

The Lötschental is still in shock. And yet it has space for careful optimism on the part of the authorities, but also a resident.

On Friday afternoon there is a depressing silence above the Lötschental. One that is only occasionally broken by the ringing of the church and helicopter noise. The Lötschental mourns the same way.

« Everyone is doing shit, » says a young man in Ferden, who is waiting in a parking space that someone picks him up. If you are not evacuating your house, you go up the Lötschental from the villages of Ferden, Kippel and Wiler.

Pensioners, families, young people on bicycles, dog owners-all have the same goal: a hill from which you can look over the brown area where the 300-soul village was once sheet. The « Ground Zero von Blatten », as Mayor Matthias Bellwald will later call it at the media conference.

Meeting point of the consolation

Blaten, there is no longer. And if you haven’t been able to believe it yet, you have to see it yourself. Up here. With an open mouth and wet eyes. « Even if many are not good, » as a young person expresses it.

The last few days have been emotional. Her grandson called her when « the mountain came ». She ran onto the balcony immediately. She only saw dirt and a huge cloud of dust. And the smell of swampy earth and old wood is located over the whole valley.

Rieder grew up in the Lötschental. She knew sheets well. « You always walked through the village and said hello here and there. » The suffering of the leaves is very close.

In the house that her father once built, she recorded a family from Blaten. The living situation is not optimal. The family could live on the upper floor, has a bedroom and its own bathroom. But you have to share the kitchen.

« In the long run, this is certainly not pleasant for you, » says Rieder. That is why the family visits an apartment in a neighboring town today. And it looks like they could move in soon. Rieder is very happy about that.

Isn’t she afraid of being able to lose her own house? « No, I believe that the tidal wave will not come, » says Rieder. She reads the inscription on her house wall, which her father once engraved into the wood: « Everything warlon and becomes dust, just not hope, love, faith. »

Then Rieder runs back to her lawnmower. And with the words « A beautiful garden also helps to stay positively » again to work.

But not only Rieder is optimistic, but also the authorities. Although only « carefully optimistic » that no tidal wave will come. And that the Lötschental has the worst behind it.