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 likely new destruction has fallen leadership 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 unit was dammed by the mass of material Officials 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 noted that the Lonza has been flowing through the full length of the debris since Friday Geologist and regional official Rapha l Mayoraz stated 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 explained 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 noted 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 Bureaucrats are still leaving open the possibility of evacuations further downstream if required though the hazard to other villages appears very low Days before bulk of the glacier collapsed government had ordered the evacuation of about people as well as livestock from Blatten Switzerland s president reported on Friday that the leadership was looking for procedures to help the evacuees Source