GENEVA (AP) 鈥� Switzerland's president on Friday said evacuees from an Alpine village whose homes and businesses were destroyed by caused by a glacier collapse were 鈥渘ot alone," and the government was calculating ways to help.
spoke after a helicopter flight to see for herself the damage to the village of Blatten that was largely destroyed on Wednesday as an estimated 10 millions of tons of mud, ice and rock thundered down from the Birch glacier overhead.
鈥淭he force with which the mountain here wiped out an entire village is indescribable,鈥� Keller-Sutter said. 鈥淚鈥檇 like to tell you all that you鈥檙e not alone. The whole of Switzerland is with you, and not just (people) in Switzerland.鈥�
Officials limited access to the area and warned that waters from the Lonza River, which has been dammed up by deposits stacked tens of meters high over a 2-kilometer (1.2-mile) swath of valley, had pooled into a lake. The future course of those waters could not yet be predicted precisely.
鈥淯nfortunately, the danger has not yet been averted,鈥� Keller-Sutter said.
While the authorities were not able to prevent the natural disaster, the country has the 鈥渆xpertise and financial resources鈥� to cope with such events, she added.
Blatten had been evacuated about 10 days earlier after experts determined a growing threat from the loosening glacier. However, a 64-year-old man remains missing and authorities have called off a .
Stephane Ganzer, an elected official who runs security in the Valais, said no evacuations were as-yet planned for villages downstream from Blatten that could face flooding if the Lonza's welled-up waters break through the pileup of mud.
"We don't want anybody else to go missing," he said. 鈥淲e will put no person in danger on the ground: No police officer, no soldier, no specialist, no member of civil security or fire squads.鈥�
He added: 鈥淪omeone asked me before: 鈥榃ho鈥檚 the chief in charge here?鈥� And I replied, there鈥檚 only one chief: nature.鈥�
Associated Press, The Associated Press
