A glacier collapses and millions of cubic meters of rock engulf a village – Liberation

The landslide of a glacier Wednesday May 28 in the afternoon in the south of Switzerland largely destroyed the small village of Blatten and disappeared, said the authorities, qualifying This event of « Very rare ». « We have lost the village today, but not our heart »said during a press briefing the mayor of the small town, which had 300 inhabitants Before its full evacuation Last week.

The disappeared person is a resident of the 64 -year -old region who, according to information from the Cantonal Police in Valais, was in the area concerned at the time of the event. Three rescuers were deposited by helicopter to search for the disappeared, a drone equipped with a thermal camera to detect body heat was also deployed, the police said in a statement.

The collapse of the glacier had been expected for several days, many rock landslides having already produced in the mountainous part which overlooks it. Around 3:30 p.m., a massive collapse occurred at the Birch glacier, in the Lötschental valley and hit down towards the village which is at around 1,500 meters above sea level, according to the authorities in charge of emergency situations in this part of the canton of Valais.

Images show a huge cloud of ice and rubble devalting the slope of the mountain overlooking the valley where the Lonza river flows and where Blatten is. The force and speed of the cloud are such that it continues its race on the opposite slope of the valley. Many dwellings in this small village have been destroyed by the clusters of ice and rocks which hit the mountain.

According to Raphaël Mayoraz, cantonal manager in charge of managing natural dangers, these are « 3 million m3 of rocks that have fallen suddenly on the glacier, taking it with them » in the valley. “It’s very, very rare. We do not know an example in history and now everything has fallen ”, he said. « It’s an extraordinary event », Added, Albert Rösti, federal advisor in charge of the environment.

His colleague Martin Pfister, in charge of defense and civil security, said that the army went there to assess the situation and make a specific point of the means to be implemented.

One of the concerns: the natural dam which has formed on the Lonza river and which causes the formation of a lake. “The traffic jam is approximately 2 kilometers long on the Lonza (…) and it is like a mountain, and of course, it creates a small lake which becomes increasingly large. And it is a risk that we must monitor ”, underlined the cantonal answer Raphaël Mayoraz.

An artificial dam has been preventively emptied to contain the water repressed by the wall of ice, earth and rubble. If the water was to be overflowed with this artificial dam, it would then be necessary to think of evacuating the valley, but this scenario of the worst has only a low probability of being realized. Lonza has a relatively limited flow.

The Cantonal Government of Valais has asked the army to provide pumps to secure the river bed, clearing devices and lighting masts. Air transport has been requested for these devices.

A support unit, especially psychological, was set up to help residents after they were able to realize the magnitude of destruction.