Latest news with #Bellwald
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Man, 64, Missing After Majority of Swiss Village Is Swallowed by 'Gigantic Landslide' Following Glacier Collapse
A 64-year-old man is missing after the majority of a Swiss village was swallowed after a glacier collapsed on Wednesday, May 28, authorities have said The village of Blatten has been buried and "the damage is considerable," the regional government said in a press release 300 residents had been evacuated from the area as a precaution on May 19A man is missing after the majority of a picturesque village in Switzerland was buried after a glacier collapsed. On the afternoon of Wednesday, May 28, almost "the entire Birch Glacier, located above Blatten, collapsed, causing a gigantic landslide," a May 29 press release shared by the Valais government confirmed. Eerie footage showed ice, mud and debris flowing near the village, which is located in the Valais region around 55 miles south of the Swiss capital Bern. "At the bottom of the valley, a huge deposit of ice and rock, several dozen meters thick and approximately two kilometers long, buried most of the village of Blatten. The damage is considerable," a translated government post said, adding that "one person is missing." The Cantonal Police of Valais told PEOPLE in an email, "Despite intensive efforts, the 64-year-old man, who according to initial findings was in the affected area at the time of the incident, has not yet been found. The search is ongoing." According to a translated police press release, the person was reported missing at around 4:35 p.m. local time on Wednesday. The local government confirmed in a release following the glacier collapse that 300 residents had been evacuated from the village on Monday, May 19, "as a precaution." The BBC reported that geologists monitoring the area had warned that the glacier appeared unstable. The regional government continued in Thursday's translated press release, "The Lonza River is blocked, and a lake is forming. The challenge lies in the behavior of this accumulation of water and the Lonza River, which could cause a torrential lava flow if the river overflows onto the deposit." The release stated that "significant resources have been deployed to deal with this situation," adding that the army was "preparing to deploy its resources." "Civil protection has also been mobilized. The population is ordered to strictly comply with the authorities' instructions and not to travel to the affected area. The Cantonal Management Body is continuously analyzing the situation," the release added. The government said, "Valais will use all means at its disposal to best support the population affected by this tragic event." Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Blatten's mayor, Matthias Bellwald, said at the press conference, per Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF), "We've lost the village, but not the heart." Bellwald had previously said that "the unimaginable has happened," the BBC reported. Stephane Ganzer, the head of security in the southern Valais region, told local TV channel Canal9, 'What I can tell you at the moment is that about 90% of the village is covered or destroyed, so it's a major catastrophe that has happened here in Blatten," per the Associated Press. Read the original article on People
Time of India
29-05-2025
- Climate
- Time of India
Watch: Swiss village buried in ice-mud deluge, one person missing
Swiss village buried in ice-mud deluge, one person missing At least one person went missing after Birch Glacier catastrophically collapsed in the Swiss Alps, wiping off 90% of the mountain village of Blatten, which is home to 300 people. The incident took place at around 3:30 pm (local time) on Wednesday, when a large chunk of ice broke off from Birch Glacier in Switzerland's southern Wallis region. It caused a massive deluge of ice, mud, and rock that buried the village in the Lotschental valley. The officials announced the evacuation of the village the previous week due to an impending danger of a landslide, but still, some didn't leave their homes. The missing person, a 64-year-old man, was among the residents not evacuated. Drone footage broadcast by Swiss national broadcaster SRF revealed a vast expanse of mud and debris engulfing homes, the Lonza River running through the valley, and surrounding forests. Shattered wooden buildings were visible amid the rubble, underscoring the scale of destruction. Swiss Village Devastated as Glacier Collapse Triggers Deadly Mudslide | WION World DNA 'We've lost our village,' said Matthias Bellwald, the mayor of Blatten at a press conference. 'The village is under rubble. We will rebuild.' Despite the devastation, Bellwald emphasised the community's resilience, vowing to support residents in the recovery process. Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter expressed solidarity with Blatten's residents, stating on X, 'It's terrible to lose your home.' by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like [Click Here] - 2025 Top Trending Search - Local network access Esseps Learn More Undo Matthias Ebener, a spokesperson for local authorities, added, 'An unbelievable amount of material thundered down into the valley.' The collapse, which registered as a 3.1-magnitude earthquake, involved millions of cubic meters of rock, ice, and soil, exacerbated by earlier rockfalls that had destabilized the glacier. University of Zurich, explained that warming temperatures have weakened permafrost, destabilizing mountain rock and likely contributing to the disaster. He noted that the scale of destruction in Blatten is unprecedented in the Swiss Alps in recent history. Switzerland, home to Europe's largest number of glaciers, lost 4% of its glacier volume in 2023 alone, following a 6% decline in 2022.
Saudi Gazette
29-05-2025
- Climate
- Saudi Gazette
Glacier collapse buries most of Swiss village
BERN — The Swiss village of Blatten has been partially destroyed after a huge chunk of glacier crashed down into the valley. Although the village had been evacuated some days ago because of fears the Birch glacier was disintegrating, one person has been reported missing, and many homes have been completely flattened. Blatten's mayor, Matthias Bellwald, said "the unimaginable has happened" but promised the village still had a future. Local authorities have requested support from the Swiss army's disaster relief unit and members of the Swiss government are on their way to the scene. The disaster that has befallen Blatten is the worst nightmare for communities across the Alps. The village's 300 inhabitants had to leave their homes on 19 May after geologists monitoring the area warned that the glacier appeared unstable. Now many of them may never be able to to fight back tears, Bellwald said: "We have lost our village, but not our heart. We will support each other and console each other. After a long night, it will be morning again."The Swiss government has already promised funding to make sure residents can stay, if not in the village itself, at least in the Raphaël Mayoraz, head of the regional office for Natural Hazards, warned that further evacuations in the areas close to Blatten might be change is causing the glaciers — frozen rivers of ice — to melt faster and faster, and the permafrost, often described as the glue that holds the high mountains together, is also footage showed a large section of the Birch glacier collapsing at about 15:30 (14:30 BST) on Wednesday. The avalanche of mud that swept over Blatten sounded like a deafening roar, as it swept down into the valley leaving an enormous cloud of monitoring the thaw have warned for years that some alpine towns and villages could be at risk, and Blatten is not even the first to be eastern Switzerland, residents of the village of Brienz were evacuated two years ago because the mountainside above them was then, they have only been permitted to return for short 2017, eight hikers were killed, and many homes destroyed, when the biggest landslide in over a century came down close to the village of most recent report into the condition of Switzerland's glaciers suggested they could all be gone within a century, if global temperatures could not be kept within a rise of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, agreed ten years ago by almost 200 countries under the Paris climate climate scientists suggest that target has already been missed, meaning the glacier thaw will continue to accelerate, increasing the risk of flooding and landslides, and threatening more communities like Blatten. — BBC
