A river dammed by a huge Swiss landslide is flowing again. That’s a relief to authorities
GENEVA AP A small Alpine river dammed by a landslide that largely buried the Swiss village of Blatten is now flowing through the debris and the level of a newly created lake that raised worries about promising new destruction has fallen administration announced Saturday A huge mass of rock ice and mud from the Birch glacier thundered into the L tschental valley in southern Switzerland on Wednesday destroying much of the village Buildings that weren t buried were submerged in a lake created by the small Lonza River whose module was dammed by the mass of material Executives worried that water pooling above the mass of rock and ice could lead to risks of its own Still the regional cabinet in Valais canton state commented that the Lonza has been flowing through the full length of the debris since Friday Geologist and regional official Rapha l Mayoraz commented Saturday that the level of the lake has since gone down about meter feet The speed at which this lake is emptying comes from the river eroding the deposit he noted at a news conference This erosion is relatively slow but that s a good thing If it is too fast then there is instability in this channel and that could lead to small slides of debris The Lonza appears to have exposed its way but it too early to be able to give an all-clear revealed Matthias Bellwald Blatten s mayor The outlet of a dam downstream at Ferden which is normally used to generate electricity was opened partially on Friday evening to allow water to flow further down the valley and regulate the volume of water behind the dam Agents are still leaving open the possibility of evacuations further downstream if required though the threat to other villages appears very low Days before the majority of the glacier collapsed administration had ordered the evacuation of about people as well as livestock from Blatten Switzerland s president noted on Friday that the ruling body was looking for means to help the evacuees Source
