 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 By Miguel Medina with Nina Larson in Geneva Bondo, Switzerland (AFP) Aug 25, 2017
Rescue workers on Friday resumed their search for eight people still missing after a massive landslide in the Swiss Alps while dozens of evacuees waited to return home. The massive search and rescue operation, involving more than 100 emergency workers equipped with infrared cameras and mobile phone detectors, helicopters and rescue dogs, had been halted overnight for safety reasons. The landslide, which struck early Wednesday, sent rocks and mud flooding down the Piz Cengalo mountain into the outskirts of Bondo, a village near the Italian border. The eight missing, who come from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, were hiking in the Val Bondasca region at the time. Local police said they had set off in separate groups. - Pessimism - According to Anna Giagometti, mayor of Bregaglia -- a municipality that encompasses Bondo -- paths in the area had been flagged as "dangerous" earlier this month due to falling rocks. Speaking to the Blick daily, she said warning signs in several languages had been posted in the village. There had been fears over the fate of another six people but police said late Thursday they had been found safe on the Italian side of the border. Police and residents said mobile phone coverage in the area was spotty, voicing hope it could explain why those still missing had not been in touch. But Swiss President Doris Leuthard, who examined the site from the air on Thursday, admitted the probability that the hikers were dead "is increasing by the hour," Blick reported. Dramatic footage showed an entire mountainside disintegrating, unleashing an unstoppable mass of thick mud and sludge that tore up trees and demolished at least one building in its path. Police said 12 farm buildings, including barns and stables, had been destroyed, while the Graubunden canton's main southern highway was closed to traffic. - Deafening bang - "It was terrible," Elisa Nunzi told Blick after witnessing the landslide from her home in a higher-altitude village. The 27-year-old said she heard a deafening bang that sent rocks pouring down the mountain. "There were so many. It did not stop," she said. Christian Speck, manager of a hotel in Soglio, several kilometres from Bondo, also witnessed the mountainside collapsing. "At breakfast time, my customers and I saw rocks come lose from the mountainside and slide towards Bondo, in a huge cloud of smoke," he told AFP. The landslide set four million cubic metres (141 million cubic feet) of mud and debris in motion, its relentless mass stretching 500 metres (1,640 feet) across, according to the regional natural hazards office (AWN). The event was so severe that the vibrations set off seismometers across Switzerland, measuring the equivalent of a 3.0 magnitude earthquake, according to the Swiss Seismological Service. - Melting permafrost? - Experts hinted that climate change could be partially to blame for the disaster, with melting permafrost and an adjacent glacier likely destabilising the landmass. An alert system put in place after a previous large landslide in the area in late 2011 allowed the authorities to quickly sound the alarm and evacuate around 100 people from Bondo and two Alpine cabins, amid fears of fresh landslides. The evacuees, who are being hosted in private homes, hotels, hospitals and churches, are still waiting to hear when they will be allowed back home. Simona Rauch, a Protestant minister at a church in Val Bregaglia, told AFP that residents did not expect to be gone so long. "People left immediately, leaving everything behind. They didn't bring anything because they thought they would be returning quickly," she said. "No one expected this kind of catastrophe."
'It could have been me': S.Leone struggles to recover from disasterFreetown (AFP) Aug 20, 2017 Gathered in a Freetown church, worshippers struggled Sunday to come to terms with the devastation wrought by the flooding and mudslide that struck the Sierra Leone capital six days ago, as the arduous search for bodies continued. "I just close my eyes and imagine, I say, 'It could have been me'," says Angela Johnson, one of about 50 parishioners at St Paul's Catholic Church in Regent, the hi ... read more Related Links Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters A world of storm and tempest When the Earth Quakes
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us. |
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Google
