Hundreds evacuated as landslide threatens Alpine village
Swiss authorities have expanded the evacuation order for the Alpine village of Blatten, amid growing fears of a major landslide.
More than 90 residents were initially evacuated on Saturday night, but officials in the southern Valais canton extended the order on Monday to encompass almost the entire village of 300, barring residents from all but two areas.
The evacuation comes in response to an escalating risk of rockfalls and landslides, leaving residents uncertain about when they can return home.
The mountain above the village remains unstable, with movements and ongoing small rockfalls being continuously recorded. Local official Matthias Ebener described the situation as "very acute'.
In 2023, residents of the village of Brienz in eastern Switzerland were evacuated before a huge mass of rock slid down a mountainside, stopping just short of the settlement.
Brienz was evacuated again last year because of the threat of a further rockslide.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
The Swiss village buried by a glacier collapse
The Swiss village of Blatten was wiped out in seconds. A glacier collapsed above the village on 28 May, triggering a landslide. The 300 residents had been evacuated a week earlier, but a 64-year-old man who is believed to have stayed is missing. Tess McClure, the Guardian's commissioning editor for the Age of Extinction, reported on the aftermath. 'The Birch glacier, which sits above Blatten, is this ancient slab of ice,' she tells Helen Pidd. 'It had been loaded up with rocks and debris from the mountain above and just gave way and crumbled. 'The millions of tonnes of rock, enormous chunks of ice, all of the mud and trees and debris that it had swept up along the way, all of that just fell down the mountain on to Blatten village.' It will take time for scientists to determine the role that the climate crisis may have played in the collapse, but Tess explains why global heating will make events like this more common. 'What we can say is, basically, climate change is affecting all of the ingredients for a disaster like this. So we're seeing glaciers around the world melt at an incredible rate. They're shrinking, they're cracking, they're growing more unstable. 'We're also seeing permafrost and ice, which in an environment like this is just the glue that holds parts of the earth, parts of the mountain, is kind of holding it all together, that permafrost is also melting. 'And we also know that climate change, higher temperatures and mountains are linked, from scientific studies, to higher rates of rockfall and higher rates of that kind of disintegration. So we can't sort of say yes, the Birch glacier was climate change and climate change alone, but we can look at all of these factors, and all of them are related to global heating.' Support the Guardian today:
Reuters
2 days ago
- Reuters
Europe's dispatchable power woes worsen from fresh hydro hit: Maguire
LITTLETON, Colorado, June 5 (Reuters) - Europe's power generation mix looks set to get dirtier over the coming summer after an enduring dry spell depleted reservoirs and crimped hydro-electricity output. Hydro dams are Europe's third-largest electricity source after natural gas and nuclear plants, and historically reach their annual production peak just before summer as snow melt and spring rains recharge dams and river systems. That network of reservoirs and run-of-river hydro plants is then typically used as a key source of so-called dispatchable power, which can be discharged on command by grid operators to balance system power needs. This year, however, a lingering drought has hit hydro generation and cut hydro-powered electricity supplies by 13% over the first five months of 2025 from the year before, to the lowest level for the month of May since 2017, data from Ember shows. That shortfall of hydro output has in turn forced utilities to rely on other dispatchable power sources - including natural gas and coal plants - which may need to be deployed at even higher levels this summer if hydro output stays stunted. Below-normal snow cover across Europe's Alps has been a key source of the hydro headache this year. From January through the end of May, a model of snow-fed hydro generation potential by LSEG estimates that output from across the Alps region is roughly a third below the long-term average so far this year. Stunted spring rains have also hurt, with output generation potential across the Danube catchment area - one of Europe's main river-fed hydro networks - over 60% below normal, LSEG data shows. The combination of below-average snow cover and precipitation has led to a roughly 13% drop in cumulative hydro-powered electricity production over the January-to-May period from the same months in 2024, according to Ember. During May, the 71 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity generated from Europe's hydro plants was the lowest for the month of May since 2017, and was 11 TWh short of the output total during the same month a year ago. This year's January-to-May hydro-fed electricity output was 48.5 TWh less than the same period in 2024, which reduced hydro power's share of Europe's electricity generation mix to 16.7% so far this year from over 19% during the same months in 2024. To offset the drop in hydro generation, as well as a 36 TWh drop in cumulative output from Europe's wind farms so far this year, European power firms have had to boost fossil fuel power generation. Output from gas-fired power plants was 31 TWh, or 7%, above the January to May 2024 total, while output from coal-fired plants was 12.5 TWh, or 5%, higher, Ember data shows. Going forward, European utilities may need to crank coal and gas plant output higher still if hydro production remains constrained while power demand remains at average levels. Output from Europe's fleet of nuclear reactors can also be potentially increased to offset the decline in hydro plants. However, regional nuclear power output could also be constrained if the region's river temperatures rise during any potential heatwaves and reduce their ability to act as a source of cooling water in reactors. That means that Europe's network of gas and coal-fired power plants will likely remain the primary source of dispatchable generation through the coming summer, especially if the dry conditions that have prevailed so far this year drag on. The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
Canadian wildfires prompt air-quality alerts across five US states
Smoke from wildfires in Canada is spreading across multiple states in the US including the eastern seaboard, prompting multiple states to issue air-quality alerts. The poor air quality stretching across the US came as a result of dozens of wildfires burning across Canada as the country's annual wildfire season roars into destructive action. The fires, which have been sparked by both humans and natural causes, have prompted at least 25,000 residents in three Canadian provinces to evacuate in recent days. On Wednesday afternoon, a map from the US Environmental Protection Agency's AirNow forecast showed large swaths of moderate to unhealthy air quality across the east, midwest and southern parts of the US, featuring smoke and dust. Also on Wednesday, the New York state department of environmental conservation issued an air-quality advisory from 11am to 11pm for multiple counties including parts of New York City. New York officials recommended that individuals consider limiting strenuous outdoor physical activity to reduce the risk of adverse health effects. Officials also said that people who may be especially sensitive to the effects of elevated levels of pollutants include the very young and those with pre-existing respiratory issues. Similarly, New Jersey's department of environmental protection issued a code orange air-quality alert for the multiple parts of the state on Wednesday. A code orange air-quality alert means that air pollution concentrations within the region may become unhealthy for sensitive groups including children, elderly people, and people with asthma, heart and lung diseases. Meanwhile, the Iowa department of natural resources issued a statewide air-quality alert on Tuesday that is set to last until Thursday. The department warned that intermittent thick smoke can be expected over the state. In New Hampshire, officials declared an air-quality action day on Tuesday, and in Maine, the state's department of environmental protection issued an air-quality alert from 11am Wednesday to 11pm Thursday. It said people can be active outdoors but symptoms such as shortness of breath, coughing, throat irritation or an uncomfortable sensation in the chest should prompt them to limit their outdoor activities.
