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Time of India
4 days ago
- Climate
- Time of India
Switzerland: Flood risk after landslide engulfs village
Representative Image A man remained 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. The landslide coated nearly the entirety of an Alpine village with mud. Last week, authorities evacuated the village as a precaution. 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 a search and rescue operation was underway for the missing 64-year-old man, involving a drone with a thermal camera. Glaciers vulnerable to climate change Switzerland's glaciers have been severely affected by climate change. In the years 2022 and 2023, they melted just as much as they had in the decades from 1960 through 1990. Matthias Huss, head of the Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland, 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 have declared a state of emergency as they monitor the situation of the huge pile of glacier debris, stretching 2 kilometers (1.25 miles), blocking the Lonza River. "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 that an assessment would be made during the late afternoon from the nearby village of Ferden. As a precaution, 16 people were evacuated late Wednesday from two villages downstream from the disaster area. An artificial dam has been 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 said. They added that there is risk on both sides of the valley. Residents shocked by scale of destruction Martin Henzen, a Blatten resident, told Reuters that he was still trying to process what had occurred and did not want to speak for others in the village. "Most are calm," Henzen said, "but they're obviously affected." Henzen said residents had been making preparations for some kind of natural disaster but "not for this scenario," referring to the scale of destruction. Up to 1 million cubic meters (35 million cubic feet) of water could accumulate daily as a result of the debris damming up the river, and the buildings that emerged intact from the landslide are now flooding. Authorities have been airlifting livestock out of the area. "Right now," said Jonas Jeitziner, an official in neighboring Wiler, "the shock is so profound that one can't think about it yet."
Al Etihad
5 days ago
- Climate
- Al Etihad
'I lost everything': Swiss residents in shock after glacier debris buries village
29 May 2025 18:24 WILER, SWITZERLAND (REUTERS)Residents were struggling on Thursday to absorb the scale of devastation caused by a huge chunk of glacier that buried most of their picturesque Swiss village, in what scientists suspect is a dramatic example of the impact of climate change on the Alps.A deluge of ice, mud and rock crashed down a mountain on Wednesday, engulfing some 90% of the village of Blatten. Its 300 residents had already been evacuated earlier in May after part of the mountain behind the Birch Glacier began to rescue teams with search dogs were still scouring the area on Thursday for a missing 64-year-old man after an initial scan with thermal drones found the Swiss army closely monitored the situation, some experts warned of the risks of flooding as vast mounds of debris almost two kilometers across are clogging the path of the River Lonza, causing a huge lake to swell amid the wreckage."I don't want to talk just now. I lost everything yesterday. I hope you understand," said one middle-aged woman from Blatten, declining to give her name as she sat alone disconsolately in front of a church in the neighbouring village of the road ran along the valley before ending abruptly at the mass of mud and debris now blanketing her own village. Just a few roofs poked up through the sea of sludge.A thin cloud of dust hung in the air over the Kleines Nesthorn Mountain where the rockslide occurred while a helicopter buzzed Henzen, another Blatten resident, said 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."They had been making preparations for some kind of natural disaster but "not for this scenario," he added, referring to the scale of destruction. 'ENORMOUS PLUG' But the immediate dangers might not be over."The water from the River Lonza cannot flow down the valley because there is an enormous plug," Raphael Mayoraz, a cantonal geologist, told Swiss national broadcaster SRF, saying floods in downstream villages were a to 1 million cubic meters of water are accumulating daily as a result of the debris damming up the river, said Christian Huggel, a professor of environment and climate at the University of Ebener, a spokesperson for local authorities, said that buildings which had emerged intact from the landslide are now flooded and that some residents of neighbouring villages had been evacuated as a army said in a statement that water pumps, diggers and other heavy equipment are on standby to provide relief when it is were airlifting livestock out of the area on Thursday, said Jonas Jeitziner, a local official from neighbouring Wiler, as a few sheep scrambled out of a container lowered from a how he felt about the future, he said, gazing at the debris: "Right now, the shock is so profound that one can't think about it yet."The incident has revived concern about the impact of rising temperatures on Alpine permafrost which has long frozen gravel and boulders in place, creating new mountain years, the Birch Glacier has been creeping down the mountainside, pressured by shifting debris near the 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 collapse. "Unexpected things happen at places that we have not seen for hundreds of years, most probably due to climate change," he told Reuters.
