The village of Blatten, nestled in the majestic Alps, witnessed a terrifying nightmare when a huge block of ice from the Birch Glacier suddenly crashed into the Swiss valley of Lotschental. This natural disaster turned the picturesque village into a sea of molten mud, almost burying the entire residential area.
Although Blatten residents had been evacuated days earlier following early warnings from experts about the instability of the Birch glacier, the scale of the devastation was far beyond anyone's expectations. The devastating mudslide not only flattened many homes but also claimed the life of a 64-year-old man who is still missing. "This is an unthinkable thing," said Matthias Bellwald, mayor of Blatten, tearfully. "We have lost our village, but our hearts are still intact. We will support each other. After a long night, the dawn will come."
A glacier landslide in the Swiss Alps created a flood of ice and mud, burying an entire nearby village.
The disaster at Blatten is a grim reminder of what awaits communities across the Alps. Unprecedented amounts of ice and meltwater have devastated Blatten, a village known for its picturesque beauty, far more severely than previously predicted. Drone footage shows a large section of the Birch Glacier collapsing, sending a deafening roar and plumes of rock and dust into the valley.
In the midst of the crisis, the local authorities quickly called in the Swiss military's disaster relief unit, which also received the government's attention. The Swiss government also pledged financial support to ensure residents could stabilize their lives, even though they may never be able to return to their old village. "We lost everything in a moment. I can't believe this was a residential area," one distraught resident shared.
Local authorities have called for assistance from the Swiss military's disaster relief unit.
However, Raphaël Mayoraz, head of the regional disaster management office, warned that further evacuations may be needed in areas around Blatten. This is a direct result of climate change, which is causing glaciers to melt faster, even permanent ones. The permafrost, which is considered the glue that holds high mountains together, is also disintegrating.
Glaciologists have been monitoring and warning for years that several towns and villages in the Alps are at high risk. Blatten is not the first locality to be evacuated. The village of Brienz in eastern Switzerland was evacuated two years ago after the mountainside above showed signs of collapse.
Climate change is causing glaciers to melt faster and faster, even those that are permanent. Meanwhile, the permafrost layer, which is likened to the glue that holds high mountain structures together, is also disintegrating.
Professor Sridhar Anandakrishnan, a glaciologist at Pennsylvania State University, stressed that the danger from glacier retreat goes beyond sudden collapses, and can lead to the formation of large lakes that can then burst into natural dams and cause disasters. This has happened in the Himalayas and Andes, and most recently in 2017, when the largest landslide in more than a century killed eight people and destroyed many homes near the village of Bondo, Switzerland.
The latest report on the state of Switzerland’s glaciers points to an alarming reality: if global temperatures are not kept below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels – a target agreed by nearly 200 countries and territories in the Paris Climate Agreement – all of Switzerland’s glaciers could disappear within 100 years. While scientists are cautious about attributing a single event directly to climate change, glaciologists have long been concerned about the impact of climate change on Switzerland’s glaciers. The disaster at Blatten is a stark wake-up call for more drastic action to protect our natural heritage and the lives of millions of people around the world.
