ALBERTVILLE (AFP) – Hundreds of people in France’s Savoie region slept in emergency accommodations over the weekend after several boulders fell on a road, closing one of the main routes to major ski resorts, police said.
Many skiers on their way to Meribel, Courchevel, Les Arcs or Val d’Isere spent hours stuck in a monster traffic jam on Saturday, after three huge rocks fell from a cliff onto the RN90 road near Aigueblanche, at around 10.30am.
One person was slightly injured in the accident, which occurred on a Saturday, the day when the vast majority of skiers either arrive or leave their resorts in France.
As a result, motorists spent several hours in a traffic jam of up to 30 kilometres and authorities offered emergency shelter to hundreds of people unable to get to their destinations.
Some 1,500 people had been accommodated in the cities of Aix-les-Bains and Albertville, Montmélian, Moutiers and Macot-La Plagne, authorities said.
“Around midnight, our driver just dropped us off and refused to take us elsewhere. All the beds were taken,” Naama Rickel, a 19-year-old Israeli tourist, said after spending a chilly night in Albertville’s Olympic Hall.
Authorities warned that traffic was expected to “remain busy”.
Works to secure the cliff are underway, but a return to normal traffic conditions is expected to take several days.
Experts said climate change and warmer temperatures across the Alps are accelerating glacier melt and thawing permafrost, the year-round ice that binds together giant slabs of rock. This has increased the danger of sudden rockfalls and landslides.
