Following the near-total burial of a small village under millions of tonnes of debris from a glacial collapse, two more Swiss villages face the threat of devastating floods.
Yesterday, a section of the Birch glacier in Switzerland’s southern Valais region broke off, unleashing a cascade of rock, ice, and scree that roared down the mountainside into the valley below.
Terrifying video footage captured a massive dust cloud rising over Blatten as the avalanche of debris overwhelmed Alpine lodges, burying them completely.
The village’s roughly 300 residents were evacuated beforehand, but 90% of Blatten is now buried under the rubble, and one person remains unaccounted for.
Now, a new danger looms as experts warn that the landslide has blocked the Lonza river, forming a natural dam that could rupture at any moment, potentially triggering a catastrophic ‘tidal wave.’
“There’s a significant risk of an ice jam causing flooding in the valley below,” said Antoine Jacquod, a military security official, in a statement to the Keystone-ATS news agency.
As a precaution, residents of the downstream villages of Kippel and Wiler have been evacuated, and authorities are considering broader evacuation orders.
Aerial images from a helicopter over Blatten reveal the extent of the devastation, underscoring the danger that nearby villages could face a similar deluge.
“The River Lonza’s flow is blocked by a massive barrier,” said Raphael Mayoraz, the cantonal official overseeing natural hazard management.
“It’s like a mountain, creating a growing lake that keeps expanding.”
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