Latest news with #StéphaneGanzer
Al Etihad
2 days ago
- Climate
- Al Etihad
Forecasted rain raises fresh concerns in Swiss valley disaster zone
31 May 2025 16:11 GENEVA (dpa)Although the situation in Switzerland's disaster-stricken Lötschental valley has eased since the enormous glacier collapse earlier this week, residents were anxiously watching the weather forecast on is expected to start on Sunday and the ice is melting - all of which could destabilise the mass of debris that has buried the village of Blatten and is partially blocking the flow of the mountain river said earlier that the Lonza, dammed up behind ice, rock and debris since the disaster on Wednesday, had sought new paths into the valley in the Swiss canton of Valais, rather than causing a feared flood fresh rain could increase the risk of a mudslide, precipitating a huge slide of detritus down the valley and jeopardising communities further downstream. Nature is in ChargeThere is little authorities can do to prevent such disasters. "Nature sets the rhythm," said Stéphane Ganzer, a state councillor in Valais, during an interview with RTS radio. Current high temperatures are accelerating snow melt while forecasts warn of heavy rainfall next week - both factors directly affecting the unstable mass of catastrophe ensued after rockfalls at a height of 3,000 metres smashed into the Birsch Glacier below, causing it to sheer off on Wednesday collapse deposited millions of cubic metres of ice and rock debris into the Lötschental valley, burying most of Blatten. Some of the village's 300 inhabitants had previously been brought to one is believed to have died in the incident, although one man was still unaccounted for on municipalities of Gampel and Steg informed residents during the night that construction machinery was operating to ensure the controlled run-off of accumulated water and solids that had blocked the Lonza."The aim is to ensure the smooth flow of debris and alluvial debris through the bed of the Lonza stream within the villages," municipal authorities resultant debris cut off the river's flow at around 1,500 metres elevation, with water pooling behind the almost 2-kilometre-long debris situation along the Lonza River remained stable at the start of the weekend, according to the local command report that the volume of water entering the dammed area is roughly equal to the amount flowing out, helping to stabilise the situation for the time nearly all the houses in Blatten that were initially spared have now been submerged in the rising manage the risk of further downstream flooding, a retention basin is expected to trap debris and sediment washed down from the damaged a precaution, the power station operator has been instructed to continue releasing water from the reservoir to maintain the volume of water exceeds the reservoir's limits, several mountain communities with more than 2,000 residents located about 20 kilometres downstream from Blatten could be at instruments have been deployed throughout the area to monitor the water levels around the clock. While no evacuations are currently planned, authorities remain on high alert.
Epoch Times
2 days ago
- Climate
- Epoch Times
Search Suspended for Missing Man in Swiss Glacier Collapse That Destroyed 90 Percent of an Alpine Village
GENEVA—The search for a missing 64-year-old man was suspended Thursday because of unsafe conditions 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 percent of the village was destroyed.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Climate
- Daily Mail
Fears TIDAL WAVE could destroy two more Swiss villages after falling glacier obliterated valley settlement and blocked river - sparking flood water surge that is rising by 2½ feet every hour
Flood waters at the Swiss village obliterated by a glacial avalanche continued to rise by a staggering 80cm (2.6ft) every hour overnight, raising fears that a tidal wave could soon swamp and destroy more nearby communes. The danger of flooding and further erosion remains high around the Alpine village of Blatten, which saw 90 per cent of the town destroyed on Wednesday when the Birch glacier partially collapsed. Experts had anticipated a growing lake forming between the debris would start to overflow overnight. At one point on Thursday, water levels in the reservoir were rising at three metres (9.8ft) every hour, Tages-Anzeiger reports, with water still crashing in from the Lonza River. State Councilor Stéphane Ganzer said the possibility of a massive flood wave rolling down the valley cannot yet be ruled out. Temperatures of 20C (68F) are expected on Friday, heightening the risk of snow melting and adding to the build up. Fearing the potential overspill, regional command staff have prepared two more local villages for rapid evacuation, announced overnight. Some 2,000 residents of Gampel and Steg have been asked to organise alternative accommodation beyond the valley. Residents of two downriver villages, Kippel and Wiler, have already been evacuated as a precaution. Blatten, anticipating the glacier collapse, was evacuated in advance, though one person remains missing. Rescue teams have been looking for the 64-year-old man missing since the landslide. But local authorities were forced to suspend the search on Thursday afternoon, saying the debris mounds were too unstable for now, and warning of further rockfalls. Flooding increased yesterday as the mound of debris almost 2 km (1.2 miles) across clogged the path of the river, causing a lake to form amid the wreckage. Authorities declared a local state of emergency as they monitor the situation. '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,' added Jacquod, speaking on Thursday. An artificial dam was preemptively emptied to receive the water pushed back by the wall of ice, earth and rubble. 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. 'The water from the River Lonza cannot flow down the valley because there is an enormous plug,' explained Raphael Mayoraz, the cantonal official in charge of natural hazard management. 'The lake behind the debris is getting higher and higher. And the water masses are pressing on the dam. This increases the pressure,' Christoph Hegg of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) told Blick. 'The worst case scenario is that the load on the dam becomes too great and the dam breaks. The water masses then rush into the valley and, depending on the strength of the material, are likely to sweep the debris with them.' New images shot from a helicopter above Blatten lay bare the scale of the destruction - and the likelihood that its neighbouring settlements could face a deluge. The village of Kippel is at a lower risk in the event of a flood as much of the properties are situated further up the banks. But locals told 20 Minuten that a newly constructed sewage treatment facility and power plant could be demolished. A campsite that routinely welcomes holidaymakers also lies directly in the path of floodwaters. As the government and emergency services work to avoid another catastrophe, officials and residents of Blatten told of their horror following the disaster that erased their livelihoods. 'I don't want to talk just now. I lost everything yesterday. I hope you understand,' one middle-aged woman from Blatten told a Reuters reporter, declining to give her name as she sat alone disconsolately in front of a church in Wiler. Chef Herbert Bürgisser, who operated a hotel business in Blatten, told Blick he had planned to renovate the property. 'Now everything is gone,' he said solemnly. 'The unimaginable has happened,' Blatten's president Matthias Bellwald told a press conference in the immediate aftermath. 'We have lost our village, but not our hearts.' 'Even though the village lies under a huge pile of rubble, we know where our homes and our church must be rebuilt,' he added. The initial disaster occurred at around 3:30pm local time on Wednesday when a huge chunk of the Birch glacier broke off. Christian Huggel, a professor of environment and climate at the University of Zurich, said while various factors were at play in Blatten, it was known that local permafrost had been affected by warmer temperatures in the Alps. The loss of permafrost can negatively affect the stability of the mountain rock which is why climate change had likely played a part in the deluge, Huggel said. A car is air-lifted on the day after the huge Birch Glacier collapsed and a massive landslide destroyed the evacuated small village of Blatten in the Swiss Alps, on May 29, 2025 The extent of the damage to Blatten had no precedent in the Swiss Alps in the current or previous century, he added. Swiss glaciers, severely impacted by climate change, melted as much in 2022 and 2023 as between 1960 and 1990, losing in total about 10 percent of their volume. In late August 2017, approximately 3.1 million cubic meters of rock fell from Pizzo Cengalo, a mountain in the Alps in Graubuenden canton, near the Italian border, claiming the lives of eight hikers. Some 500,000 cubic metres of rock and mud flowed as far as the town of Bondo, causing significant material damage but no casualties. 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.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Swiss Village Devastated By Glacier Collapse
A massive landslide triggered by the collapse of a glacier buried much of the Alpine village of Blatten in Switzerland's Lötschental valley on Wednesday, destroying 90% of the town and leaving a 64-year-old man missing, authorities said. Search-and-rescue efforts were suspended Thursday due to unstable debris as the region grapples with the aftermath of what glaciologists describe as a climate-driven disaster. The collapse of a large chunk of the Birch Glacier, located above Blatten, sent ice, rock, and mud crashing down the mountainside, flattening homes and submerging buildings in brownish sludge, according to video footage and satellite images. The debris also blocked the Lonza River, causing whatever buildings were left standing to be flooded by the backup of the river. State Councilor Stéphane Ganzer told Radio Télévision Suisse that the disaster obliterated nearly the entire village. Bethan Davies, a glaciology professor at Newcastle University, described the event to ABC News as a 'cascading disaster.' The glacier had been destabilized since last week when millions of pounds of rock debris fell onto its surface. Warm temperatures on Monday exacerbated the instability, accelerating the collapse. 'This is a marked acceleration,' Davies said. 'Lots of cracks started to form, a sign of the tension in the ice.' Authorities evacuated about 300 residents and livestock earlier this month after observing increased glacier melt and debris flow, a precaution that likely saved lives. Mathieu Morlighem, a glaciologist at Dartmouth College, told ABC News the collapse was likely caused by thawing permafrost, which acts as 'glue' to stabilize mountain rock. 'What happened to Birch Glacier is what we would expect from rising temperatures in the Alps and elsewhere,' Morlighem said, comparing it to a 2023 landslide in Switzerland's Silvretta Alps but noting Birch Glacier's larger scale due to excessive ice and meltwater. One resident told Reuters she 'lost everything' in the mudslide, while another said, 'You can't tell that there was ever a settlement there.' Werner Bellwald, a resident of the nearby hamlet of Ried, said the landslide wiped out his 1654-built generational family home. The Cantonal Police of Valais halted search efforts for the missing man Thursday afternoon, citing falling debris. Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter is scheduled to visit the area on Friday. Glaciologists link the disaster to climate change, which has accelerated glacier retreat in Switzerland. The country, home to Europe's most glaciers, lost 4% of its glacier volume in 2023, following a record 6% in 2022, The Washington Post reported. Average temperatures in the Swiss Alps have risen 3 degrees Celsius since the 1970s, said Daniel Farinotti, a glaciologist at ETH Zurich, who warned in March, 'Switzerland's glaciers could vanish completely by 2100.' A 2024 International Cryosphere Climate Initiative report predicts one-third of European Alps glaciers will disappear by 2050, even without further warming. Davies noted that warming climates increase mountain landslides by melting permafrost and altering freeze-thaw cycles. Sridhar Anandakrishnan, a glaciologist at Pennsylvania State University, told ABC News that glacial degradation can also form unstable lakes, as seen in the Himalayas and Andes. The Blatten disaster underscores the growing risks to Alpine communities. Glacierologists are urging further study of climate-driven glacier instability to prevent future catastrophes.
Newsweek
3 days ago
- Climate
- Newsweek
Satellite Photos Show Aftermath of Switzerland Glacier Collapse
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Satellite imagery from the glacial collapse in Switzerland shows the extent of damage suffered by a village and its residents. Why It Matters Footage of the Birch Glacier's collapse on Wednesday has widely circulated, with photos and videos showing a violent surge of ice, rock, and mud, followed by a dense dust cloud that soon engulfed the Alpine village of Blatten. Homes disappeared beneath thick brown sludge as the collapse triggered a debris avalanche, described by local officials as a "major catastrophe." What To Know "The damage is considerable," the Valais local government said in a statement on Thursday. "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." A satellite image shows the destruction caused by the Birch Glacier's collapse in Switzerland on May 28, 2025. A surge of ice, rock and mud followed by a dense dust cloud swallowed the village of... A satellite image shows the destruction caused by the Birch Glacier's collapse in Switzerland on May 28, 2025. A surge of ice, rock and mud followed by a dense dust cloud swallowed the village of Blatten. More Satellite image ©2025 Maxar Technologies In advance of the environmental disaster caused by the 1.5 million-cubic-meter (over 52 million cubic feet) Birch Glacier above the village, officials ordered the evacuation of the village's approximately 300 residents and all livestock. Blatten is in the Valais region, south of Switzerland's capital, Bern. Stéphane Ganzer, the head of security for the Valais region, told Canal9 TV, "What I can tell you at the moment is that about 90 percent of the village is covered or destroyed, so it's a major catastrophe that has happened here in Blatten," according to the Associated Press. Another satellite image of the disaster in Switzerland. Another satellite image of the disaster in Switzerland. Satellite image ©2025 Maxar Technologies Ganzer added that there is a risk that the situation "could get worse," citing not just the burial of the village but also the blockage of the nearby Lonza River, which has increased concerns about flooding. Swiss Environment Minister Albert Rösti described the disaster as "an extraordinary event" in a news conference, adding that support would be provided to those who lost their homes. Authorities reported a 64-year-old man missing, prompting a search operation aided by drones with thermal imaging. The magnitude of the glacial impact in Switzerland, seen from space. The magnitude of the glacial impact in Switzerland, seen from space. Planet Labs PBC Days prior to the actual event, in anticipation of the collapse on mountain slopes, videos shared on social media showed local officials strapping cows to helicopters and transporting them to safety. In addition to the 300 evacuated residents, livestock evacuations included 26 cows, 190 sheep and 20 rabbits, according to one video posted online. Newsweek could not verify the information. Photos from different angles show the broader landscape. Photos from different angles show the broader landscape. Satellite image ©2025 Maxar Technologies What People Are Saying Christophe Lambiel, a specialist in high-mountain geology and glaciers at the University of Lausanne, told RTS Swiss Television: "What happened is the unthinkable, the catastrophic worst-case scenario." Valais Cantonal Police, in a statement: "The missing person is a 64-year-old resident of the region, who, according to our information, was in the area concerned at the time of the event. "Despite the great efforts made, the man has still not been found. Various additional measures and options for locating the person are continuously analyzed. The search continues." Jonas Jeitziner, a local official from neighboring Wiler, said, according to Reuters: "Right now, the shock is so profound that one can't think about it yet." What Happens Next The Valais local government stated that significant resources have been deployed to address this situation, including the army conducting reconnaissance and mobilizing its own resources. Civil protection has also been mobilized. Residents have been urged to comply with the authorities' instructions and refrain from traveling to the affected area.
