Overview

• Residents and local leaders held a symbolic ceremony near the ruined municipal building to launch reconstruction.
• The May 28 collapse sent several million cubic metres of rock and ice into the valley, burying most of the village.
• Debris left a metre-high cone over buildings and created a lake after blocking the Lonza River’s initial outflow.
• Plans call for restoring a church and village square on the original site with new housing to be built nearby.
• A new access road and water supply are reported nearly finished as one shepherd's death and the evacuation of about 300 people underscore the disaster’s toll.