Switzerland: Flood risk after landslide engulfs village – DW – 05/29/2025

DW

2 days ago

Authorities are using a drone with a thermal camera to search for the 64-year-old man. There are also concerns the debris from the glacier could cause the River Lonza flood other villages.
A man remains missing on Thursday following a massive landslide that engulfed a village in southern Switzerland.
The Birch glacier in Switzerland's southern Wallis region crumpled on Wednesday, with the resulting landslide of rock and ice sending plumes of dust skyward.
It coated nearly the entirety of an Alpine village with mud, which authorities had evacuated last week as a precaution.
Glaciers have lost around 10% of their volumes since 2022 due to climate change Image: Pomona Media/REUTERS
The barrage largely destroyed the hamlet of Blatten, which had been home to 300 people. State Councilor Stephane Ganzer told Radio Television Suisse that 90% of the village was destroyed.
The Cantonal Police of Valais said that a search and rescue operation was underway for the 64-year-old man, involving a drone with a thermal camera.
Swiss glacier collapse partially destroys village of Blatten
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Climate change causing significant impact to glaciers
Swiss glaciers are severely impacted by climate change.
In the years 2022 and 2023, they melted just as much as they had between 1960 and 1990, losing in total about 10 percent of their volume.
Matthias Huss, head of the Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (GLAMOS), pointed to the likely influence of climate change in loosening the rock mass in the permafrost zone, which triggered the glacier collapse and the subsequent landslide.
"Unexpected things happen at places that we have not seen for hundreds of years, most probably due to climate change," he told Reuters.
Concerns rising over blocked river
Authorities declared a local state of emergency as they monitored the situation of the huge pile of glacier debris, stretching 2 kilometres (1.25 miles), blocked the River Lonza.
"There is a serious risk of an ice jam that could flood the valley below," Antoine Jacquod, a military security official, told the Keystone-ATS news agency. "We're going to try to assess its dimensions."
With the area too unstable to be approached, authorities indicated an assessment would be made during the late afternoon from the nearby village of Ferden.
The deluge of mud, ice and debris blocked the River Lonza Image: Jean-Christophe Bott/KEYSTONE/dpa/picture alliance
As a precaution, 16 people were evacuated late on Wednesday from two villages which are located downstream from the disaster area.
An artificial dam was pre-emptively emptied to receive the water pushed back by the wall of ice, earth and rubble. Were that water to overflow from the dam, authorities would need to consider evacuating the valley.
"The deposit ... is not very stable, and debris flow is possible within the deposit itself (which) makes any intervention in the disaster area impossible for the time being," cantonal authorities stated, adding there was risk on both sides of the valley.
Residents shocked by scale of destruction
Martin Henzen, a Blatten resident, told Reuters he was still trying to process what had occurred and did not want to speak for others in the village, saying only: "Most are calm, but they're obviously affected."
He added that residents had been making preparations for some kind of natural disaster but "not for this scenario," referring to the scale of destruction.
One man was reported missing after the landslide Image: Jean-Christophe Bott/KEYSTONE/dpa/picture alliance
Up to 1 million cubic meters of water could be accumulating daily as a result of the debris damming up the river, and the buildings which have emerged intact from the landslide are now flooding.
Authorities have been airlifting livestock out of the area, and Jonas Jeitziner, a local official from neighbouring Wiler, added: "Right now, the shock is so profound that one can't think about it yet."
Edited by: Zac Crellin