Human consequences
56 children, 14 staff members and a nun die, most of them in their sleep. It is one of the deadliest landslides in France in the 20th century.
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Avalanche & landslidePlateau d’Assy disaster
71Deaths
Not quantifiedDisplaced / homeless
Not quantifiedEstimated cost
- 71 dead, including 56 children.
In the middle of the night, a flow of mud, snow and rock rushes down the Échines gully and destroys the boys’ wing of the Roc des Fiz children’s sanatorium, where young patients are treated for tuberculosis.
Consequences
Environmental consequences
The slide starts at about 1,630 m, on slopes soaked by snowmelt; a first flow had already reached the building in early April.
Economic consequences
The sanatorium is abandoned; the plateau’s establishments, already declining since antibiotics against tuberculosis arrived, gradually close.
Political consequences
Coming two months after Val-d’Isère, the tragedy speeds up the mapping of natural hazards in the mountains by the French state.
Further reading
Similar disasters
- Val-d’Isère avalancheAvalanche & landslide · France1970
- Kolka Glacier collapseAvalanche & landslide · Russia2002
- “White Friday” avalanchesAvalanche & landslide · Italy (Austro-Italian front)1916
- Freetown mudslideAvalanche & landslide · Sierra Leone2017
In the rankings : The worst disasters in France No. 8
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