"RHONE GLACIER, Switzerland On a hotel veranda overlooking Lake Lucerne, Barbara Achrainer sips a latte and, with a sigh, peers at sightseers boarding a tour boat. It's a warm summer afternoon and the hot air over the turquoise water forms a haze that silhouettes the Alps in the distance. Achrainer has moved from hotel to hotel like this one since late May, when she was forced out of her home."
"She had just begun a new job as manager of the storied Hotel Fafleralp perched along a mountainside above the village of Blatten. She and her crew were preparing for their first guests of the season when suddenly the workers started running for the exits. "They yelled, 'We need to leave right now!' And I'm like, 'Why? What, how?' And they literally jumped into their cars and left. And I was like, 'What's going on?'""
"Across the valley from the hotel on a peak towering over Blatten, the picturesque Birch Glacier was, unbeknownst to the casual observer, on the move. Scientists noticed it was starting to slide down the mountain faster than it had in decades, on a trajectory so dangerous that they rapidly persuaded the local government to immediately evacuate the village's 300 people. A week later, as predicted, the glacier broke loose."
Barbara Achrainer, a hotel manager in Switzerland, was forced to move from her home in late May as the nearby Birch Glacier began accelerating down a mountain above the village of Blatten. Workers abruptly evacuated, and scientists persuaded local authorities to order an immediate evacuation of the village's roughly 300 residents. A week later the glacier broke loose, crashing down the steep mountainside in a cloud of ice, rock and sand that instantaneously buried Blatten's church, town hall and homes under mud, sand and rocks. The event far exceeded recent Swiss experience and left survivors and witnesses stunned.
Read at www.npr.org
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