Vajont: Chronicle of a tragedy foretold

Longarone (BL)9 October 1963, 10.39 pm. A blinding flash anticipated a frightening roar: the dreaded enormous landslide detached from the side of Mount Toc, formed by a single mass of 260-270 million cubic meters of rock which, falling into the water of the artificial lake, caused the lifting of a disruptive wave hundreds of meters high formed by 50 million cubic meters of water.It was the apocalypse. The wave, having jumped over the dam, crashed into the valley of Longarone below, sweeping away inhabitants, towns and villages like defenseless sticks, and took away 1917 human lives with it.