The Swiss Alpine village of Blatten has been devastated after a massive section of the Birch Glacier broke off and crashed into the valley below, burying much of the village under debris.
Although residents had been evacuated days earlier due to warnings from geologists, one person remains missing, and many homes have been leveled.
Blatten’s mayor, Matthias Bellwald, called the event “unimaginable” but vowed that the village still has a future. Local authorities have requested assistance from the Swiss army’s disaster relief unit, and members of the Swiss government are heading to the site.
The disaster is a grim reminder of the risks alpine communities face. Blatten’s 300 residents were evacuated on May 19 after experts monitoring the glacier detected signs of instability. Now, many may never be able to return home.
Holding back tears, Mayor Bellwald said: “We have lost our village, but not our heart. We will support and console one another. After a long night, morning will come again.”
The Swiss government has pledged financial support to ensure residents can remain in the area, even if they cannot return to the village itself. However, Raphaël Mayoraz, head of the regional office for Natural Hazards, warned that further evacuations nearby may be needed.
Climate change is accelerating the melting of glaciers and thawing the permafrost that holds mountain slopes together, increasing the risk of disasters. Drone footage captured the glacier’s collapse around 15:30 local time on Wednesday, sending a deafening avalanche of mud and rock into the valley and leaving a massive cloud of dust in its wake.
Experts have been warning for years that alpine villages are under threat. Blatten is not the first to face evacuation: two years ago, residents of Brienz in eastern Switzerland were forced to leave as the mountainside above them began crumbling. In 2017, eight hikers lost their lives near Bondo when the largest landslide in over a century struck, destroying homes.
The latest glacier survey warned that, without strict action to limit global warming, Switzerland’s glaciers could disappear within a century. While the Paris Agreement aimed to cap global temperature rise at 1.5°C, many climate scientists now believe that target has already been missed, raising fears of continued glacier retreat and increasing risks for alpine communities.
