Swiss communities on alert after massive landslide
Lötschental Valley: A number of Alpine communities in Switzerland's Lötschental valley have been asked to be ready to evacuate their homes following a massive landslide on Wednesday.
Rivers in the area have become swollen and have dammed up behind the rubble, rock and ice that thundered down into the valley after the Birch Glacier began to collapse in the southwestern canton of Valais.
"We ask residents to make personal preparations so that they can leave their homes as quickly as possible," the municipalities of Steg-Hohtenn and Gampel-Bratsch in the Lötschental Valley posted on their website late Thursday.
Wednesday's collapse saw millions of cubic meters of ice, mud and rock engulf the village of Blatten and authorities have yet to locate a 64-year-old man who has not been seen since the collapse.
Blatten's 300 residents were evacuated at short notice last week following an assessment by geologists that found that a landslide was imminent.
Local authorities suspended the search for the missing man on Thursday afternoon, as conditions became too dangerous with warnings of further rockfalls.
The debris has blocked the course of the River Lonza and has caused a lake to form, which in turn has heightened fears the mass could dislodge and impact communities further downstream.
Stephane Ganzer, head of the security division for the Valais canton, told reporters that water levels have been rising by 80 centimetres (31.5 inches) an hour as a result of the blockage.
The army is on standby with water pumps and earth-moving machinery and will get to work once conditions improve.
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Times of Oman
7 hours ago
- Times of Oman
How does Switzerland predict landslides?
Blatten: The destructive landslide in the Swiss village of Blatten is the latest natural disaster to hit valley communities in the Alpine nation. While Blatten was engulfed by a slick of icy sediment this week, early warnings of a potential landslide gave residents time to evacuate. Only one person — who chose to remain in his home — is currently unaccounted for. The search for him has been suspended. Switzerland is an early warning success story. Government agencies there use a broad range of technologies and methods to assess risks that could threaten lives and property. This includes terrain mapping and continuous monitoring of rainfall, permafrost melt, groundwater levels, tectonic shifts and ground movement. This data allows authorities to maintain hazard risk maps across the country. "Every community in Switzerland that's affected by a hazard has a hazard map. They're federally mandated for the areas where people live," said Brian McArdell, a geomorphologist at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL). In Blatten's case, officials issued alerts after a nearby rockfall destabilised the Birch Glacier. Combined with warming summer temperatures, the glacier fractured. A slurry of ice, sediment and mud then roared down the mountain to the village below. World's mountainous regions most at risk Steep slopes, unstable terrain and exposure to high rainfall or permafrost melt put mountain regions more at risk of landslides and avalanches. For valley communities in Switzerland, the potential for a landslide can mean entire towns need to be evacuated. Following the Blatten landslide, several nearby communities remain on alert, including for potential flooding. Brienz, a village around 25 miles (41 km) north of Blatten, is also preparing for possible evacuation. The town has faced repeated warnings and "near miss" rockslide events since 2023. "In general, debris flow is a mixture of coarse and fine sediment — so everything from boulders, to mud, to very fine sediments and water," said McArdell. "These events can occur quite suddenly and they're quite, quite dangerous." Regions with the highest landslide-related fatalities globally include the Himalayas, parts of Central and South America, Italy and Iran. The International Conference on Glaciers' Preservation is currently being held in Tajikistan, where Farinotti expects the release of a "Glacier Declaration" urging greater action to protect ice masses from the effects of climate change. "[It will] call for various actions and, among others, it will call for increased preparedness against risk deriving from cryospheric hazards, so avalanches," he said. Guzzetti also highlighted the UN's Early Warnings for All initiative, which aims to establish a global early warning system by 2027. If achieved, this could be a major step toward saving lives from natural hazards. While wealthy nations like Switzerland have reliable infrastructure to warn communities of potential disasters, many others are still playing catch-up. According to UN figures, only 108 countries had the capacity for "multi-hazard early warning systems" last year though that is more than double the number from 2015. The benefits are clear, said Guzzetti, pointing to the Blatten evacuation: "It seems that they were very good at evacuating the town in time, so that fatalities were nil, or very small."
Times of Oman
2 days ago
- Times of Oman
Swiss communities on alert after massive landslide
Lötschental Valley: A number of Alpine communities in Switzerland's Lötschental valley have been asked to be ready to evacuate their homes following a massive landslide on Wednesday. Rivers in the area have become swollen and have dammed up behind the rubble, rock and ice that thundered down into the valley after the Birch Glacier began to collapse in the southwestern canton of Valais. "We ask residents to make personal preparations so that they can leave their homes as quickly as possible," the municipalities of Steg-Hohtenn and Gampel-Bratsch in the Lötschental Valley posted on their website late Thursday. Wednesday's collapse saw millions of cubic meters of ice, mud and rock engulf the village of Blatten and authorities have yet to locate a 64-year-old man who has not been seen since the collapse. Blatten's 300 residents were evacuated at short notice last week following an assessment by geologists that found that a landslide was imminent. Local authorities suspended the search for the missing man on Thursday afternoon, as conditions became too dangerous with warnings of further rockfalls. The debris has blocked the course of the River Lonza and has caused a lake to form, which in turn has heightened fears the mass could dislodge and impact communities further downstream. Stephane Ganzer, head of the security division for the Valais canton, told reporters that water levels have been rising by 80 centimetres (31.5 inches) an hour as a result of the blockage. The army is on standby with water pumps and earth-moving machinery and will get to work once conditions improve.
Times of Oman
25-05-2025
- Times of Oman
Switzerland: Five skiers found dead near Zermatt
Zermatt: Five skiers were found dead near Switzerland's Rimpfischhorn mountain on Sunday, the prosecutors' office in Canton Valais said in a statement. The prosecutors said that the identities of the five have not yet been confirmed and that further investigations have been opened. As part of the probe, weather conditions and avalanche activity in the region are being examined. Emergency services had been alerted a day earlier to some abandoned skis at an altitude of about 4,000 metres. A helicopter was sent to survey the area in the mountains near Zermatt, a luxury resort in southwestern Switzerland. After conducting air and ground searches of the area, rescue workers found the bodies near the Adlergletscher glacier, close to the border with northern Italy. "The bodies of five people were quickly found," Swiss police said in a statement. Air Zermatt reported that three bodies were found on an avalanche cone, and two more were discovered nearby on a snowfield. The Rimpfischhorn, a 4,199-metre (13,776-foot) mountain that lies east of Zermatt, near the Italian border, is popular with backcountry skiers. Last year, five cross-country skiers found dead near Zermatt.
