Editing Geography of Andorra (section)

====1996 Arinsal avalanche====
The 1996 Arinsal avalanche was an exceptionally powerful powder-snow avalanche that followed several days of very heavy snowfalls and high winds.<ref name="bd1">''Bon Dia'' newspaper, February 1996</ref> At 19:00 on 8 February 1996, the avalanche fell on the village of [[Arinsal]] destroying or severely damaging many cars and buildings and hotels including the crest hotel the rocky mountain bar and above apartments the asterics bar and little damage to three blocks of flats that were under construction by a Russian company and still are under construction; evacuation of the residents and tourists in the village had been completed 1½&nbsp;hours before the avalanche, and consequently there were no deaths, but the material and economic damages were large.<ref name="bd1"/><ref name="meffre2">[http://www.avalanches.fr/construire/risque_2.htm Avalanche d'Arinsal en Andorre du 8 février 1996] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090323040051/http://www.avalanches.fr/construire/risque_2.htm |date=2009-03-23 }}, JF Meffre (Consellet tècnic en allaus, Servei de predicció d'allaus d'Andorra). {{in lang|fr}}</ref> Afterwards, the government ordered the construction of a snow dam across the Arinsal valley to stop future avalanches. The Arinsal snow dam, which is {{convert|16|m|ft|1|abbr=on}} high and {{convert|320|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} wide, cost 52&nbsp;million [[French franc|francs]] and used {{convert|115000|m3|cuyd|0|abbr=on}} of soil and {{convert|11000|m3|cuyd|0|abbr=on}} of rock.<ref name="meffre1"/>