Bystřička village

    The Bystřička Landslide affecting the railway between Valmez and Vsetín

There are two large landslides, which were activated on Monday the7^th of July. They both occurred near the town of Bystřička and broke the railway that links the towns of Valašske Meziříčí and Vsetín (see plate).

The accumulation zone directly hit the railway track embankment. This damaged rails and falling trees destroyed the overhead electrical cables.The second landslide did not reach as far as the railtrack but the huge mass in motion partially displaced a sandstone ridge, which deformed part of the track. This landslide was controlled by a geological syncline structure. The oversaturaton that occurred in both landslides caused large mudflows down towards the accumulation zone. This together with the amount of trees that had fallen due to the slide caused an impervious barrier.

The work done to remedy the landslide here was quite extensive, not only draining the slope and removing the trees but work was done to fix the railtrack as soon as possible so that people could travel again (see plate). This was managed but it was a danger that the force of the landslide would push the railway embankment into the riverbed of the Vsetínská Bečva River.

    Landslides at the Bystřička Water Reservoir

Large landslides originated on the slopes of the water reservior. The accumulation zones of these landslides was mostly comprised of mud and earth, which is characteristic of a debris flow. However, this put the roads around the dam out of operation. The left bank was entirely blocked by a huge landslide that ended in the lake along with several trees from the forest.Near the restuarant U Bušů, at the village of Malá Bystřice, four flow slides occurred of a length around 250m, (see plate. They covered the road with the accumulative tongues of muddy soil and broken tree stems. The fine-grained material partly contaminated the resevoir water.