Flood of the Saldurbach and public thanks by the municipality of Schluderns

Appendix.

Public thanks.

The days from 31 July to 10 August of this year were, for the parish village of Schluderns, Glurns district court, situated on both banks of the Saldur stream flowing from the Matscher Ferner, eleven days of the greatest danger, anxious concern, and completely exhausting effort to preserve a large portion of the residential buildings, plots, and the postal and commercial road. For on 31 July at 4:30 in the morning, the said torrent burst forth with an unusual volume of water, rolling along large tree trunks, boulders, and torn-away debris. It soon abandoned its former bed and undermined whole stretches of the collapsing embankments in a short time, leaving a large part of the houses and properties exposed to its erratic course. Although the inhabitants of the community mounted continuous resistance day and night for eight days under the tireless and expedient direction of the district court staff and the road master, the state of extreme danger could not be alleviated until a measure devised with full expertise by the imperial-royal district engineer adjunct Mr. Hirn, and made feasible through the two-day, substantial, entirely unpaid assistance of several neighboring communities, succeeded: by means of a 70-Klafter diversion canal dug at the edge of the village, and light traverse-like board revetments within simple turf embankments, an innocuous deposition of the vast quantity of gravel was secured, bringing about a rapid drop in the water level and averting the previous danger without damage proportionate to its magnitude. While every member of the community of Schluderns thanks the Almighty in prayer for this deliverance from utmost distress, the municipal administration considers it its foremost duty, in the absence of the district judge on leave, to express general recognition and undivided gratitude, particularly to the imperial-royal district court adjunct Mr. Sybold, district court actuary Mr. Kastner, district engineer adjunct Mr. Hirn, and for the most benevolent cooperation of the communities of Glurns, Mals, Burgeis, Schleis, Laatsch, Taufers, Tartsch, Prad, Agums, Liechtenberg, as well as the community of Tschengls belonging to the Schlanders district court.

May efforts succeed in preventing similar dangers in future by addressing the root cause (identified as most likely the sudden outburst of one of several water reservoirs in the Matscher Ferner).

The municipal administration of Schluderns.