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LONG TERM PROJECTS: DamAge: DamAge - vajont

On October 9th 1963 a giant landslide collapses into the artificial lake created by the Vajont Dam in northern Italy, provoking a 250 meters high wave that completely destroys the settlements near the lake and the town of Longarone far down in the valley below the dam. 

1910 people lost their lives in a tragedy that easily could have been avoided if it was not for the economical and political interests of powerful men dreaming of the tallest dam in the world. 

A tragedy that is still alive today in Erto, Casso and Longarone, where the survivers of that disastrous day almost 50 years ago are still fighting for their justice. 

Recommended books about Vajont: 

"Sulla Pelle Viva" by Tina Merlin 

"L'Onda Lunga" by Lucia Vastano 

  • The undamaged dam, keeping the enourmous amount of rock and mud from the landslide, today continuing to remind everybody about that terrible night of October 9th 1963.
  • The new town of Longarone as seen through the narrow gorge from top of the dam.
  • The Vajont Dam still intact today as seen from underneath.
  • Italo Filippin was, like many young men from the area, away for work in october 1963. Coming back to Erto he has never stopped fighting for the rebirth of his village and is still today working to preserve the memory of Vajont.
  • Part of the landslide on Monte Toc.
  • The lower parts of Casso were hit by the enormous wave in spite of the villages position on top of a steep mountainside high above the dam.
  • Oliva de Lorenzi. {quote}Walking on the Mount Toc you could see craps and gaps in the ground everywhere and the trees were falling over touching the soil. The ground was trembling under my feet. Do you know what Toc means? It means rotten...{quote}
  • Casso, one of the villages upriver from the dam that was hit by the wave.
  • Rina, one of the few survivours deciding to move back to her village after the disaster. {quote}We used to be more than 250 and now we are less than 40. That night we saw the devil! Nothing has been the same since.{quote} All the inhabitants were forced by the police to leave their villages even if many houses were still intact, but in the following years some of them decided to reoccupy their own houses, living for more than 10 years without water and electricity.
  • The 2km wide landslide carried 260 million cubic metre of rock into the lake.
  • Albina from the locality called Le Spesse survived because she was abroad the day of the disaster.
  • A memorial tablet dedicated to lost familiemembers.
  • The 2km wide landslide on the other side of the valley from Erto, one of the villages hit by the giant wave. Many of the inhabitants decided to reoccupy the village soon after realizing that the intention of the state was to disperse them to lowlands far away from their home. After living 10 years under pressure from the authorities without electricity and water, Erto is today a growing village.
  • {quote}A few days after the disaster we were forced to leave Erto against our will and for years we moved around from one village to another untill we finally managed to go back to Erto in 1967 after a long struggle. We've suffered a lot to maintain our roots since it was decided that we were not supposed to come back here. Franca Filippin
  • Writings on the wall in Erto from the period just after the disaster.
  • Signs from  october 9th 1963.
  • Bruno indicating the point from where the water came.
  • One of the many gravestones found in the woods in remembrance of disappeared families. Most of the corpses were never recovered and therefore losing the right to a burial in the cemetery.
  • A cross in the middle of the woods is a common sign near Vajont.
  • Pine, one of the survivours from the locality of Prada.
  • The remains of a kitchen pavement of one of the houses swept awayby the water, one of many signs from the disaster scattered around in the landscape.
  • The Vajont lake today.
  • Italo Filippin in the mountains above the dam, watching down on Longarone and the Piave valley.
  • The new town of Longarone. Corruption has always been a matter when it comes to the financing of the riconstruction. Major parts of north-eastern Italy declared themselves as affected areas and businessmen from far away from Vajont managed to benefit economically from the disaster with subsidies and tax reductions. On the contrary many of the survivours got pushed to sign agreements for a minor compensation renouncing to proceed legally.
  • Micaela Coletti from Longarone was just a child when she was rescued from the mud as the only survivour from her family. {quote}I'm living a life which is not the one I was supposed to live. I didn't ask anyone to pull me out of the mud that day, and if that didn't happen, today I would have spent the last 50 years together with my mother, my father and the rest of my family.{quote}
  • View towards the gorge and the dam as seen from the chuch rooftop in Longarone.
  • {quote}For us the date october 9th 1963 symbolizes only the beginning of the Vajont tragedy. That night was terrible, but the story about the 'post-Vajont' is probably even more painful if possible. Although almost 50 years have passed, for us it's as if it all happened yesterday. Time hasn't been able to cancel anything. The word 'forget' doesn't exist for us.{quote} Gino Mazzorana
  • Carolina Teza demonstrating the {quote}invoice{quote} of the compensation given to her husband for the loss of his parents and four brothers and sisters. Only 20 years old he was obligated to accept a compensation of 3000 euro, but he has never recieved any psycological help. Carolina is still fighting today for an official aknowledgement for a foreseen tragedy.
  • {quote}What they've done to the Fortogna cemetery is destroying the memory of the victims. Before the survivours could have an encounter with the past here. Gravestones with photos and inscriptions have been destroyed to construct a mausuleum of the memory. But the memory of who?{quote} Carolina Teza
  • The new town of Vajont was inaugurated in 1971. This is where most of the people who were evacuated 8 years earlier were transferred as the authorities refused them to return to their own houses.
  • The ex-mayor of new Vajont posing in the main square.
  • The main street with the modern church in the new town of Vajont.
  • In 1971 this couple from one of the villages near the dam decided to accept a new house in the new town called {quote}Vajont{quote} constructed from scratch in the flat plains more than 40km away from their old home up in the mountains. Their house was undamaged like many others, but the police didn't give the permission to move back. {quote}We had no choice, but here we have no roots.{quote}
  • Abandoned sportfields of new Vajont.
  • Menega, one of the survivours forced to move to the new {quote}Vajont{quote} town. {quote}I've never liked it here. I still have my house in up in the valley where I know everybody and where I'm everybody's sister, but I can't go back on my own.{quote}
  • The water that leaped over the dam and down through the narrow gorge hit Longarone with the pressure of the Hiroshima bomb. In the following years the extreme resistance of the dam was promoted by the constructers as an example of an engineering masterpiece.
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