The glacier fell to the alpine village. “It became unimaginable”

Blatten is a small village located in the Swiss Alps. Only 300 people live in it. On May 19, its inhabitants were evacuated due to the expected landslide of the glacier to their homes.

The services reacted on time. On Wednesday, a huge fragment of the Birch glacier broke away, causing the flooding and backfilling of houses under it with ice, mud and rocks that buried most of the mountain village.

The glacier fell to the village in Switzerland

“At the moment I can say that about 90 percent of the village is buried or destroyed, so it is a serious disaster (…),” said local Canal9 television Stephane Ganzer, head of security in the southern region of Valais.

The mayor of the village of Matthias Bellwald, said that “became unimaginable,” but assured that the village still had a future. “We lost the village, but not the heart. We will support each other and comfort each other. After a long night the morning will come again,” he added.

Local authorities asked for support to the Swiss army unit dealing with the removal of the effects of disasters. An intensive search for a 64-year-old man who is considered missing is currently underway. Search and rescue activities involving a drone with a thermal imaging camera are pending.

Members of the government also went to the place. They declared financial assistance so that the inhabitants could stay at least around their homes.

Raphaël Mayz, head of the Regional Bureau of Natural Threats, warned that further evacuation may be necessary in areas near Blatten.

The effects of melting glaciers for hybrids

BBC reminds that climate change means that fridge, frozen masses of ice, melt faster and faster. Thus, “eternal cold” loses its eternal property. Although it is often described as glue that binds high mountains, also melts.

If the global temperatures are not maintained at 1.5 degrees Celsius above the level before the industrial era, then Swiss glaciers may disappear during the century.