After the Swiss dropout, there is a fear of pent -up water masses – Diepresse.com
An enormous glacier root has a village in Switzerland. The search for a missing person was discontinued. Now the next disaster threatens.
After a nerve -wracking night, all eyes are on the resulting reservoir behind the rubble cone in the disaster of the gigantic glacier termination in the Lötschental in the Swiss canton of Valais. It is clear that the water masses have to make a way into the valley – but it is uncertain whether this is organized or chaotic. It is hardly possible to intervene with machines because the Schuttberg is unstable and there are further slope slips.
Gigantic rock, ice and scree quantities not only buried the village of Blatten among themselves on Wednesday, but also blocked the bed of the Lonza river. The water has stowed into a lake. The water level at times rose by three meters every hour. However, valley residents, disaster assistants and the called up army members had to watch how the situation was worried. With heavy device to mill furrows for an orderly expiry of the water in the rubble level, is not an option.
« /> The village of Blatten, buried under a meter -high layer of rubbers, can hardly be seen on satellite shots. A comparison of 2024 and 2025. APA / AFP / Handout
« Unfortunately we can do little »
« Unfortunately, we cannot do much because the security situation on site does not allow that we can intervene with heavy machines, » said Christian Studer from the Canton of Valais on Swiss television. There are several sources of danger: the Schuttberg is unstable because it consists of boulders, loose rubble and glacier ice, which should have already melted. Neither humans nor machines would be sure.
At the same time, there are further slips from both sides of the valley: at the original demolition point on the small Nesthorn, several hundred thousand cubic meters of rock can still crash. In addition, rubble and rubble masses over the valley floor and on the opposite slope were pushed up during the abortion. They too could slip again as a rubble avalanche.
Reservoirs below as a precaution emptied
The authorities can currently only deal with the danger assessment and organizational measures, said Studer. « We can make sure that no people are in an endangered area. » As a precaution, a reservoir at Ferden on the Lonza was emptied at the Lonza in order to serve as a collecting pool.
Studer also appeals to the horror scenario, which is unlikely but possible: « The ‘worst case » scenario is that, contrary to the scenarios currently as a rather realistically assessed scenarios, there is a lot more water and bedding that the reservoir is no longer able to swallow, « he said. Individual houses along the river bed were cleared.
Remaining people have to prepare for evacuation
Behind the rubble of the Glacier cancellation in the Lötschental, the thawed river Lonza is so threatening that the authorities prepared other communities for evacuation. « We ask the residents to make personal preparations in order to be able to leave the apartments within the best possible time, » the municipalities report Steg-Hohtenn and Gampel-Bratsch on their website. A total of more than 2,000 people live in the area, but the call only applies to the districts on the valley ground, as the municipalities say.
Lonza flows into the Rhone near Gampel – when it leads water. However, after the gigantic glacier cancellation on Wednesday, the river bed is blocked at a height of around 1,500 meters through meter -high rubble mountains. Behind it the water masses are traffic jam. The authorities hope that the water will make a way and flows off leisurely. However, according to the authorities, it cannot be excluded that the water spills over the rubble cone and a tidal wave or a rubble avalanche rush into the valley when the water raves parts of the unstable rubble. (APA/dpa)
