Latest news with #avalanche
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Climate
- Daily Mail
Terrifying satellite images show how tiny Swiss village of Blatten was completely wiped out by massive glacier collapse
New terrifying satellite images have revealed how a tiny Swiss village was completely wiped out by a massive glacier collapse. The remote Alpine village of Blatten was flattened after an avalanche of rock, mud and ice was sent crashing down into the valley. Once home to around 300 people, it now lies buried beneath a vast expanse of debris after the Birch Glacier broke off on Wednesday afternoon. Authorities say 90 per cent of the village has been destroyed. New satellite pictures reveal the true scale of the disaster, showing where homes, farmland and roads once stood, now completely smothered by mud and rubble. The river Lonza, which runs through the valley, has been blocked by the landslide, which had raised fears of further flooding. But as reconnaissance flights and inspections continued, authorities said water from the newly formed lake, which has been slowly submerging the remaining houses in the obliterated village of Blatten, was beginning to find its way over, through and around the blockage. 'This development is positive, but we remain cautious,' said Stephane Ganzer, head of the regional security department. 'The risk remains, even if it is diminishing,' he told a press conference, adding that 'no evacuations are planned' in the villages downstream in the Lötschental valley, one of the most picturesque regions in southern Switzerland. The outflow "makes us optimistic and suggests that the water is finding a good path", explained Christian Studer of the Wallis canton's Natural Hazards Service. However, work to pump water from the lake has still not begun as the ground remains too unstable, particularly on the mountainside. One 64-year-old man is still missing. He was believed to be in the area at the time. Switzerland's president has pledged support for those forced to flee the Alpine village of Blatten, telling evacuees they are 'not alone' after a devastating glacier-triggered landslide wiped out homes and businesses. Karin Keller-Sutter made the comments on Friday after surveying the destruction by helicopter. She said the government was now working to calculate ways to help those affected by the disaster. 'The force with which the mountain here wiped out an entire village is indescribable,' said Keller-Sutter. 'I'd like to tell you all that you're not alone. The whole of Switzerland is with you — and not just (people) in Switzerland.' Officials have limited access to the area and warned that huge deposits of debris, stacked tens of metres high across a 2-kilometre stretch of the valley, have blocked the Lonza River and formed a new lake. New satellite pictures reveal the true scale of the disaster, showing where homes, farmland and roads once stood, now completely smothered by mud and rubble The future course of the water remains uncertain. 'Unfortunately, the danger has not yet been averted,' Keller-Sutter added. Separate drone footage shown by national broadcaster SRF showed a vast plain of mud and soil completely covering part of the village and the river running through it. At around 3:30pm local time, a huge chunk of the Birch glacier broke off, according to emergency services in the Wallis region. Local police said the missing 64-year-old man was a local resident who was in the area at the time of the incident. A search and rescue operation was launched, with three specialists airlifted to the scene, while a drone with a thermal imaging camera was also used. 'Despite significant efforts, the man has still not been found,' police said. The village, including residents and a herd of 52 cows, had mostly been evacuated this week amid fears the 52mn cubic ft glacier was days away from collapse. 'We've lost our village,' Matthias Bellwald, the mayor of Blatten told a press conference after the slide. 'The village is under rubble. We will rebuild.' The glacier collapse had been expected for several days, and there have been no reports of injuries. 'An unbelievable amount of material thundered down into the valley,' said Matthias Ebener, a spokesperson for local authorities in the southwestern canton of Valais. Stephane Ganzer, an official in the canton of Valais where Blatten is located, told Swiss media that about 90% of the village was covered by the landslide. 'it's a major catastrophe that has happened here in Blatten,' he said, adding: 'There's a risk that the situation could get worse,' alluding to the blocked river. He said the army had been mobilised after earlier indications that the movement of the glacier was accelerating. Experts consulted by Reuters said it was difficult to assess the extent to which rising temperatures spurred by climate change had triggered the collapse because of the role the crumbling mountainside had played. 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. The extent of the damage to Blatten had no precedent in the Swiss Alps in the current or previous century, he added.
Daily Mail
2 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.
CBC
2 days ago
- Climate
- CBC
Glacier collapses, burying evacuated Swiss village
A huge chunk of a glacier in the Swiss Alps broke off, sending a surge of ice, mud and rock crashing down Blatten. Officials say the mountain village was evacuated at the time, but one person is missing.
CTV News
3 days ago
- Climate
- CTV News
Man remains missing after a Swiss glacier collapsed and destroyed 90% of an Alpine village
A large avalanche with a mixture of ice, rock, snow and water reach the valley floor is pictured in Wiler after the Birch glacier collapsing above Blatten, Switzerland, Wednesday, May 28, 2025. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Climate
- Telegraph
Watch: Glacier collapse buries Alpine village
An avalanche of rock, ice and mud has buried a village in the Swiss Alps. A 64-year-old man has been reported missing after 90 per cent of the village of Blatten, in the Lötschental valley, was smothered by the avalanche on Wednesday afternoon. The village's 300 inhabitants escaped mass casualties after authorities evacuated the area 10 days ago as a precaution. Video footage captured the moment about 3.5 million cubic metres of rock, snow and ice broke off the Birch Glacier, which looms above the village. Matthias Bellwald, the mayor of Blatten, said: 'We've lost our village. The village is under rubble. We will rebuild.' 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 per cent of the village is covered or destroyed. 'So it's a major catastrophe that has happened here in Blatten'. The debris has blocked a river that runs through the village raising concerns of flooding. The government has said it will provide help to villagers whose homes have been destroyed. Christian Huggel, a professor of environment and climate at the University of Zurich, said the extent of the damage to Blatten had no precedent in the Swiss Alps in the current or previous century. Residents have been urged to stay away from the area as it is still dangerous. Global warming has been blamed for a rise in the instability of glaciers worldwide, with scientists saying the warmer temperatures are melting the permafrost.
