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Straits Times
3 days ago
- Climate
- Straits Times
Flood risk threatens Swiss valley after glacier destroys village
A few remaining houses are seen after a massive rock and ice slide covered most of the village of Blatten, Switzerland May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth Mud and rocks slide down a mountain after a glacier partially collapsed covering most of the village of Blatten, Switzerland May 28, 2025, in this screen grab taken from a handout video. Pomona Media/Handout via REUTERS A satellite image shows destroyed houses and blocked Ionza River, after a glacier in the Swiss Alps partially collapsed and tumbled onto the village, in Blatten, Switzerland May 29, 2025. Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERS A satellite image shows Blatten after a glacier in the Swiss Alps partially collapsed and tumbled onto the village, in Blatten, Switzerland May 29, 2025. Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERS Debris and dust from a crumbling glacier that partially collapsed and tumbled onto the village of Blatten, Switzerland, May 29. Rescue teams with search dogs and thermal drone scans have continued looking for a missing 64-year-old man but have found nothing. Local police suspended the search on Thursday afternoon, saying the debris mounds were too unstable for now. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth ZURICH - A lake of water trapped behind a mass of glacial debris that buried a village and blocked a river in southern Switzerland this week has sparked fears of flooding in the Alpine valley, even as some water eased its way through the morass on Friday. A deluge of millions of cubic meters of ice, mud and rock crashed down a mountain on Wednesday, engulfing the village of Blatten. The few houses that remained intact were later flooded. The village's 300 residents had already been evacuated after part of the mountain behind the Birch Glacier began to crumble. Rescue teams were looking for a missing 64-year-old man but have suspended their search for now due to the difficult conditions. Flooding increased on Thursday as the mound of debris almost 2 km (1.2 miles) across clogged the path of the River Lonza, causing a lake to form amid the wreckage, raising fears that the morass could dislodge and trigger more evacuations. Late on Thursday, local authorities urged residents in Gampel and Steg, neighbouring and lower-lying villages several kilometres further downstream on the Lonza, to prepare for possible evacuation in case of emergency. Still, by Friday afternoon some of the accumulated water had made its way through the debris and run off, indicating that it could be finding a way back to the river without raising the danger level, Swiss officials said. Authorities are therefore sticking to safety measures put in place on Thursday and do not currently expect the situation to worsen, local official Christian Studer told a press conference. The army has been standing by with water pumps, diggers and other heavy equipment to help relieve pressure on the Lonza, a tributary of the River Rhone, once conditions allow. Residents have struggled to absorb the scale of destruction caused by the deluge, an event that scientists suspect is a dramatic example of the impact of climate change in the Alps. The Swiss Insurance Association said the damage would likely amount to several hundred million Swiss francs, and that it was too early for a more precise estimate. How many houses were insured in Blatten was unclear, it said in a statement. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
3 days ago
- Climate
- Straits Times
Flood risk threatens Swiss valley after village destroyed by glacier
A few remaining houses are seen after a massive rock and ice slide covered most of the village of Blatten, Switzerland May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth Debris and dust from a crumbling glacier that partially collapsed and tumbled onto the village of Blatten, Switzerland, May 29. Rescue teams with search dogs and thermal drone scans have continued looking for a missing 64-year-old man but have found nothing. Local police suspended the search on Thursday afternoon, saying the debris mounds were too unstable for now. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth Mud and rocks slide down a mountain after a glacier partially collapsed covering most of the village of Blatten, Switzerland May 28, 2025, in this screen grab taken from a handout video. Pomona Media/Handout via REUTERS A satellite image shows destroyed houses and blocked Ionza River, after a glacier in the Swiss Alps partially collapsed and tumbled onto the village, in Blatten, Switzerland May 29, 2025. Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERS A satellite image shows Blatten after a glacier in the Swiss Alps partially collapsed and tumbled onto the village, in Blatten, Switzerland May 29, 2025. Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERS ZURICH - Water trapped behind a mass of glacial debris that this week buried a village and blocked a river in southern Switzerland has sparked warnings that further evacuations may be needed amid the risk of flooding in the Alpine valley. A deluge of millions of cubic meters of ice, mud and rock crashed down a mountain on Wednesday, engulfing the village of Blatten, and the few houses that remained later flooded. Its 300 residents had been evacuated earlier in May after part of the mountain behind the Birch Glacier began to crumble. Flooding increased on Thursday as the mound of debris almost 2 km (1.2 miles) across clogged the path of the River Lonza, causing a lake to form amid the wreckage, raising fears that the morass could dislodge and trigger more evacuations. Late on Thursday, local authorities urged residents in Gampel and Steg, villages several kilometres further along the Lonza Valley, to prepare for possible evacuation in case of emergency. The army is standing by with water pumps, diggers and other heavy equipment to provide relief when conditions allow. Rescue teams have been looking for a 64-year-old man missing since the landslide. Local authorities suspended the search on Thursday afternoon, saying the debris mounds were too unstable for now, and warning of further rockfalls. Residents have struggled to absorb the scale of destruction caused by the deluge, an event that scientists suspect is a dramatic example of the impact of climate change in the Alps. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
DW
4 days ago
- Climate
- DW
Switzerland: Flood risk after landslide engulfs village – DW – 05/29/2025
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 To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video 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
CBS News
4 days ago
- Climate
- CBS News
Partial glacier collapse causes landslide that buries 90% of Swiss village
Geneva — A 64-year-old man remained missing Thursday after a huge mass of rock and ice from a glacier crashed down a Swiss mountainside the day before. The landslide sent plumes of dust skyward and coated with mud nearly all of an Alpine village that authorities had evacuated earlier this month as a precaution. State Councilor Stéphane Ganzer told Radio Télévision Suisse that 90% of the village was destroyed. "An unbelievable amount of material thundered down into the valley," the Reuters news agency quotes Matthias Ebener, a spokesperson for local authorities as saying. Mud and rocks slide down a mountain after a glacier partially collapsed, covering most of the village of Blatten, Switzerland on May 28, 2025, in this screen grab taken from a handout video. Pomona Media / Handout via Reuters "We've lost our village," Blatten Mayor Matthias Bellwald told a press conference, according to Reuters. "The village is under rubble. We will rebuild." The Cantonal Police of Valais said that a search and rescue operation was underway for the missing man, whose name wasn't made public, and that it involved a drone with a thermal camera. The regional government said in a statement that a large chunk of the Birch Glacier above the village had broken off, causing the landslide, which also buried the nearby Lonza River bed, raising the possibility of dammed water flows. "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 today." As a precaution, 16 people were evacuated late Wednesday from two villages located downstream from the disaster area. "It's like a mountain, and of course, it creates a small lake that gets bigger and bigger," explained Raphael Mayoraz, the cantonal official in charge of natural hazard management, Wednesday evening. Mud and rocks cover a village after a glacier collapse onto Blatten, Switzerland, on May 28, 2025, in this screen grab taken from a video. KEYSTONE-SDA via REUTERS Video on social media and Swiss television showed that the mudslide near Blatten, in the southern Lötschental valley, partially submerged homes and other buildings under a mass of brownish sludge. In recent days, authorities had ordered the evacuation of about 300 people, as well as all livestock, from the village amid fears that the 52 million-cubic foot glacier was at risk of collapse. The Valais cantonal government has meanwhile asked the army to provide clearing equipment and pumps to secure the riverbed. "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. 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. The incident comes just days afte the bodies of five skiers were found on a glacier above the Swiss resort town of Zermatt. Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.
Straits Times
4 days ago
- Climate
- Straits Times
'I lost everything': Swiss residents in shock after glacier debris buries village
A helicopter flies over debris and dust from a crumbling glacier that partially collapsed and tumbled onto the village of Blatten, Switzerland is seen on May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth Mud and rocks slide down a mountain after a glacier partially collapsed covering most of the village of Blatten, Switzerland May 28, 2025, in this screen grab taken from a handout video. Pomona Media/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT Debris and dust from a crumbling glacier that partially collapsed and tumbled onto the village of Blatten, Switzerland is seen on May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth A few remaining houses are seen after a massive rock and ice slide covered most of the village of Blatten, Switzerland May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth Debris and dust from a crumbling glacier that partially collapsed and tumbled onto the village of Blatten, Switzerland is seen on May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth Debris and dust from a crumbling glacier that partially collapsed and tumbled onto the village of Blatten, Switzerland, is seen on May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth A few remaining houses are seen after a massive rock and ice slide covered most of the village of Blatten, Switzerland May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth WILER, Switzerland - Swiss residents were struggling on Thursday to absorb the scale of devastation caused by a huge chunk of glacier that has buried most of their picturesque 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 the 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 crumble. However, 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 nothing. As 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 Wiler. Nearby, 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 overhead. Martin 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. "The worst case scenario is possible flooding." Up to one 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 Zurich. Matthias Ebener, a spokesperson for local authorities, said some residents of neighbouring villages had been evacuated as a precaution. 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 hazards. For years, the Birch Glacier has been creeping down the mountainside, pressured by shifting debris near the summit. 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 this week's collapse. "Unexpected things happen at places that we have not seen for hundreds of years, most probably due to climate change," he told Reuters. REUTERS Find out more about climate change and how it could affect you on the ST microsite here.
