{"id":146892,"date":"2025-05-31T13:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T13:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/146892\/"},"modified":"2025-05-31T13:30:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T13:30:09","slug":"situation-stabilizes-overnight-dw-05-31-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/146892\/","title":{"rendered":"Situation stabilizes overnight \u2013 DW \u2013 05\/31\/2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following the dramatic rock fall and glacier collapse on Wednesday<\/a> in the Swiss L\u00f6tschental valley, officials said on Saturday that the situation had eased.<\/p>\n

One fear had been that the Lonza River, which had been backed up behind the ice, rock and debris, could result in a flood wave<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, officials said the river had found new paths down the valley in the southern Swiss\u00a0canton of Valais.<\/p>\n

Construction machinery has been deployed to control the run-off of accumulated water.<\/p>\n

The municipalities of Gampel and Steg informed\u00a0residents of the work, saying: “The aim is to ensure the smooth flow of debris and alluvial debris through the bed of the Lonza stream within the villages.”<\/p>\n

\"WaterAuthorities expressed relief that the Lonza River has begun to flow down the valley, reducing the risk of a flood swellImage: Jean-Christophe Bott\/KEYSTONE\/picture alliance<\/p>\n

What did authorities say about the Swiss glacier on Saturday?<\/p>\n

Stephane Ganzer, from the Valais state council, said that there had been no major problems overnight.<\/p>\n

The situation on Saturday was “currently satisfactory” and the night had been “quite quiet,” Austrian public broadcaster ORF reported.<\/p>\n

The council decided on Friday evening to open a nearby dam, warning residents downstream to make way for the water.<\/p>\n

Residents were already on alert and ready to evacuate<\/a> in the case of a dangerous swell of water behind the debris cone.<\/p>\n

The heat has sped up the melting of the glacier ice and rain has been forecast for the next days. Both could lead to a buildup of accumulated water and increase the risk of further landslides.<\/p>\n

Further evacuations after Swiss glacier collapse

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/video><\/p>\n

Blatten: Buried village to be rebuilt<\/p>\n

The glacier collapse was caused by rockfalls from 3,000 meters (9842.5 feet) that crashed into the Birsch Glacier, triggering the landslide on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Millions of cubic meters of ice and rock were sent crashing through the L\u00f6tschental valley and burying the village of Blatten, which had already been evacuated.<\/p>\n

Water from the Lonza was then blocked behind the almost 2-kilometre-long debris cone.<\/p>\n

Blatten’s municipal president Matthias Bellwald said the village would be rebuilt.<\/p>\n

“Blatten is under a debris cone. Together we will do what is humanly possible to rebuild the village for the village to have a future. Together we are strong,” Swiss newspaper the Neue Z\u00fcrchner Zeitung quoted him as saying at a press conference.<\/p>\n

\"TheWork has begun to remove large objects blocking the flow of waterImage: Cyril Zingaro\/KEYSTONE\/dpa<\/p>\n

Edited by: Wesley Dockery<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following the dramatic rock fall and glacier collapse on Wednesday in the Swiss L\u00f6tschental valley, officials said on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-146892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114602693852544902","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}