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Six hydroelectric power plants hit by flooding in southeast Switzerland

A rescue worker walks with a dog along a flooded street with wreckage in the background
Clean-up and rescue operations are underway in the Mesolcina valley in canton Graubünden in southeast Switzerland. Keystone / Ti-Press / Samuel Golay

Six hydroelectric power stations belonging to the energy group Axpo have been affected by flooding in the Misox region in canton Graubünden in southeast Switzerland. The facilities have been checked and are safe, said the Aargau-based group on Monday.

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The electrical equipment has been checked and shut down, and the power stations and the reservoirs that supply them are “safe and partially operational”, the group said in a statement on Monday. It will be decided later how and when they will be brought back into service.

+ Storm damage to major Swiss motorway may impact summer travel

The following power stations were affected by the recent bad weather: Officine Idroelettriche di Mesolcina (OIM), Calancasca, Elettricità Industriale (Elin), Idro Arvigo and Tecnicama. The OIM and Calancasca stations suffered “minor” damage, but are ready to restart. The Elin facility, on the other hand, “suffered some damage”, which was unspecified, and will only be able to resume service after repairs.

+ One dead, two missing after landslide in SwitzerlandExternal link

On Friday evening, thunderstorms and heavy rain caused flooding and landslides in the Mesolcina valley in canton Graubünden. The village of Sorte was particularly hard hit, with several houses and vehicles swept away. The body of a missing person was found on Sunday, while the search for two others continues.

+ Read more: the deadliest landslides in Swiss history

Adapted from French by DeepL/dkk/sb

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

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