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West Australian
2 hours ago
- General
- West Australian
Kununurra volunteer Lincoln Heading honoured with King's Birthday medal
A Kununurra man who spent 34 years volunteering for emergency services has been recognised for his lifetime of community work with a King's Birthday medal. Lincoln Heading, who was the Kununurra SES unit manager for 18 years before taking on the roles of acting district officer of Natural Hazards for the East Kimberley and then Marine Rescue East Kimberley commander has received an Emergency Services Medal for his work. Mr Lincoln said he was, 'humbled by the whole thing.' 'Particularly being recognised by my peers, in that respect it's a different thing,' he said. When Mr Heading first put his hand up to volunteer for the SES in the late 1980s its headquarters was under a gum tree. However, through his leadership the organisation evolved and now has a location unit alongside Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service. Mr Heading was also heavily involved in the establishment of the marine rescue group in Wyndham in the mid-90s, overseeing the development of the headquarters, including the ablutions, kitchen area and exterior upgrades. He was also part of the creation of the Emergency Services Levy, which funds the delivery of critical and life-saving fire and emergency services in the State. Mr Heading said he, like many volunteers, was motivated by a sense of altruism and a desire to give back to the community. 'But over time, it becomes clear that you're actually setting up the true resilience of a community, their ability to bounce back. It's the way the emergency services can actually get together and be the foundation of that resilience. It doesn't matter whether it's a car accident or a fire or rescuing somebody off a cliff. It's all part of it,' he said. After a decades in Kununurra, Mr Heading and his wife Felicity, returned to their native South Australia last year. Now living in Mt Benson, Mr Heading said he missed Kununurra. 'Especially at this time of year, when there's a sub-Antarctic blast coming off the Great Southern Ocean,' he said. 'For the next three months I'll miss Kununurra and the weather deeply but then once it gets to 36C or 38C, I won't miss that heat.' 'I also missed not getting to ride on the new marine recue boat,' he said referring to the $1.1 million, 11m rigid-hull vessel launched in Wyndham in January. However, getting a chance to ride in the new vessel, named King George, and catch up with his former colleagues may be a good excuse to return to the East Kimberley for a holiday. 'It will probably come to that,' he said.
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
The Sun
28-05-2025
- Climate
- The Sun
Swiss town BURIED after horror avalanche thunders down mountain in huge landslide & submerges homes & causes evacuation
A SWISS town has been buried after a devastating landslide sent a massive avalanche crashing down the mountain, submerging homes and forcing residents to evacuate. A massive cloud of ice and debris surged towards the small village of Blatten, completely wiping it out. 8 8 8 Fortunately, the village of 300 residents were evacuated a week earlier after experts warned them of the impending danger. The glacier collapse registered as an earthquake with a Richter scale measurement of 3.1. Drone footage from Swiss broadcaster SRF showed the entire village covered by a vast plain of mud and soil, with a river running through it. Emergency crews in the Wallis region revealed that a huge chunk of the Birch glacier broke off at around 3.30pm local time. The Swiss government has dispatched the army to the scene after local authorities requested assistance. Although no injuries or deaths have been reported, the residents of Blatten will not be able to return, as the entire village has been destroyed. Matthias Bellwald, Blatten's mayor, said: "The unimaginable has happened. "We have lost our village, but not our heart. "We will support each other and console each other." Blatten's residents have been promised funding from the Swiss government to house them in the local area. Horror avalanche kills three skiers after dragging them several hundred metres down 9,000ft mountain However, Raphaël Mayoraz, head of the regional Natural Hazards office, warned that more evacuations could be needed in towns near the Blatten area. Experts had been closely monitoring the glacier's movements, which intensified before triggering the massive avalanche. "An unbelievable amount of material thundered down into the valley," said Matthias Ebener, a spokesperson for local authorities in the southwestern canton of Valais. Local authorities were deploying by helicopter and across the area to assess the damage, Jonas Jeitziner, a spokesman for the Ltschental crisis center, told The Associated Press by phone. 8 8 8 Swiss glaciologists have repeatedly expressed concerns about a thaw in recent years, attributed in large part to global warming, that has accelerated the retreat of glaciers in Switzerland. The landlocked Alpine country has the most glaciers of any country in Europe, and saw 4% of its total glacier volume disappear in 2023. That was the second-biggest decline in a single year after a 6% drop in 2022. 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 community. Brienz was evacuated again last year because of the threat of a further rockslide. It comes after a British man was killed after he was swept 50ft to his death in a horrific avalanche at the popular French ski resort Val Thorens. And a skier who died in a massive avalanche in the French Alps had his body discovered thanks to his elbow still sticking out from the snow. 8 8
