Flooding fears eased at picturesque Swiss Alpine village buried by landslide
A huge mass of rock, ice and mud from the Birch glacier thundered into the Lötschental 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 course was dammed by the mass of material.
The regional government in Valais canton said that the Lonza has been flowing through the full length of the debris since Friday.
Geologist and regional official Raphaël Mayoraz said the level of the newly created lake has since gone down about 1 meter (3.3 feet).
Authorities had previously worried that water pooling above the mass of rock and ice could lead to further risks.
'The speed at which this lake is emptying comes from the river eroding the deposit,' he said 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 found its way, but it too early to be able to give an all-clear,' said 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. Authorities are still leaving open the possibility of evacuations further downstream if required, though the risk to other villages appears very low.
Days before most of the glacier collapsed, authorities had ordered the evacuation of about 300 people, as well as livestock, from Blatten. Switzerland's president said on Friday that the government was looking for ways to help the evacuees.
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Think you know how to use a Swiss Army knife? Think again
It's the ultimate boys' toy for all generations. Whether you grew up with Just William stories, The Dangerous Book for Boys or YouTube crafting videos, the single item that every man either has, wishes to have or regrets not having is a Swiss Army knife. And women are quite fond of them, too. Over the decades, there have been more than 150 different kinds of fold-out tools found on Swiss Army knives. There are currently 178 different pocket knives available from Victorinox, from the Swiss Champ XXL with 73 different tools to the key-ring-size Escort with just six. As I constructed my own knife, the Ranger, a mid-tier model which is probably the most traditional knife in Victorinox's arsenal, I was given a history lesson on the individual tools and the best ways to use them. 1. Blade, large Designed to do everything from wood-whittling to opening letters, the uses of the standard blade are fairly self-explanatory. 'I use my knife blade every day for opening parcels, opening food packets, everything,' says Elsener. 'I carve an apple for breakfast first thing in the morning. An apple a day keeps the doctor away.' For outdoor work, the large blade is a woodman's best friend. To whittle wood, open the blade and close a fist around the handle so just the tip is pointing out. 'This will allow you to gain power,' explains Felix Immler, Victorinox's Swiss Army knife expert instructor. 'From there, use the bottom of the blade at a 45 degree angle to carve your wood. Each stroke should be an explosion of force.' 2. Multipurpose hook Originally included on the Swiss Army Knife as a tool for gentlemen who hoped to make themselves useful to ladies who needed their corsets tightening, the hook's modern era usage is somewhat more mysterious. 'You could use it for… anything you might need a hook for,' a Victorinox spokesperson explained, helpfully. I did find one particularly practical usage of my own, though; open the hook half-way and you use it as a portable stand to rest a phone against. You might also use it to pull a bike chain off your gears, so you can work without getting greasy fingers, or even to tease apart difficult knots. 3. Corkscrew/Screwdriver The original innovation featured on the 'Officer's And Sports knife', the corkscrew's use is fairly self-explanatory. It's also a handy holster for the knife's smallest screwdriver. 4. Reamer, punch, sewing awl (nail cleaner) One of the most mysterious tools on the Swiss army knife is the reamer, punch, and sewing awl. This thin, sharp wedge is at the bottom of the knife. Punch the reamer into something and then rotate the whole knife to carve out a hole. 'You can use it to put a new hole in your belt or make a conical hole in a piece of wood,' says Immler. 'My other favourite trick is to pierce the tip of the reamer into a stable surface to hold the knife steady. Then rub a piece of wood back forth along the sharp edge of the reamer to create little shavings. Then you can quickly draw a fire striker along the reamer to create a fire.' 5. Keyring eyelet Most people will only ever use the keyring eyelet to attach their Swiss Army knife to something, but given how solid the eyelet is, Immler uses his for additional tasks. 'If you feed a paperclip or needle through the eyelet, you can precisely bend it to create a fishing hook,' he explains. 'But it's also very hard – if you ever need to crack a coconut, the eyelet is tough enough to do that too.' 6. Blade, small 'Probably the most underrated tool on your pocket knife,' asserts Immler. 'If you carve wood, it should be your main blade. The small blade has a lot of advantages over the big blade. The small blade is usually sharper because it gets used less, and you can create tighter turns with it, so it's better for detailed work.' Hold the knife as you would to use the large blade, then place a thumb on the back of the blade. Push the knife with that thumb to make precise, shallow cuts in the wood. 7. Wood saw Another fairly simple tool, but the steel wood saw is very effective. 'I would recommend if you're sawing something to clamp the wood between your foot and the ground, and then saw as close to your foot as possible,' says Immler. 'This will prevent the wood you're sawing from moving around too much and if you're bending over to saw with your shoulder, rather than your elbow, that'll give you more power and control.' 8. Toothpick Another lesser-known tool hidden in the scale of all Swiss Army knives is the toothpick. It's also handily sized for cleaning the knife itself. 9. Bottle opener/Screwdriver 6mm/Wire stripper A bottle opener is always worth having in a pinch, especially when (like the can opener) the flat top of it also doubles as a screwdriver. A slightly lesser-known use of this tool is the small nub at the bottom which functions as a wire stripper. With the large blade folded out, place your wire between the handle of the knife and this notch, so that the wire prevents the bottle opener tool from folding back in. Then carefully fold the blade back against the wire to use as a wire stripper. 10. Scissors 'My favourite tool is the scissors, and we often hear the same from customers,' says Elsener. 'They're very helpful when you nick your nail and you can just take your scissors and correct it.' But the scissors are also strong enough to cut through fabric and aluminium cans – useful for making basic camp crafts or first-aid. Because they're spring-loaded, the trick with the scissors is to hold the knife in your palm and 'pump' the scissors, rather than trying to open them up and close them as you would a standard pair of kitchen scissors. 11. Small screwdriver The smallest screwdriver function on the knife neatly slots into the end of the corkscrew, and is designed for tightening up your glasses. 12. Tweezers Hidden inside the 'scale' of the knife is a tiny pair of tweezers. Not exactly a revolutionary bit of kit, but given how small it is, many don't realise it's there. Victorinox also suggests the tweezers can be useful when picking up delicate items of jewellery or even tiny components when repairing electronics. 13. Can opener/Screwdriver 3mm While most people are generally more familiar with rotary can openers, having an emergency back-up is always helpful. Simply press the hooked 'nose' of the can opener into the outside lip of your tin, then use the upper 'punch' in an up-and-down motion around the top of the can to open it. As for the flat end of the can opener? It's also a helpful screwdriver. The history of the Swiss army knife Victorinox, the original Swiss Army knife company, produces 45,000 pocket knives every weekday to be shipped out around the world (the United States, Germany, Mexico, Britain and France are the biggest markets after Switzerland itself). Yet the Swiss Army knife was originally nothing of the sort. When a young Karl Elsener opened his workshop in Ibach, a small town an hour's drive from Zurich, in 1884, he was repairing tools for local farmers and making a few knives per week. The contract for standard-issue Swiss Army knives which featured a blade, reamer, can opener and screwdriver belonged to a German company. In 1896, Elsener presented army generals with a new knife, which, unlike the German one, featured tools on both sides of the grip and an innovative spring system, as well as a corkscrew, which he hoped would make it attractive to officers. The 'Officer's and Sports Knife' was declined by army chiefs. Having already produced hundreds of knives, Elsener faced financial ruin until he began selling the knives to American soldiers stationed in the country. They loved them and took them home as gifts. By 1909, the Swiss army had taken notice and contracted Elsener's company to make knives for its soldiers. The rest is history. Today, the company is a family-run foundation, with Carl Elsener IV the current CEO. It has produced around 550 million multi-tool penknives to date. 'In Switzerland, most people carry a Swiss Army knife with them every day,' Elsener tells The Telegraph. He personally prefers the Traveller, a pocket knife with an electronic display featuring an alarm clock ('set for 5.15am every day in my case,' says Elsener), altimeter, barometer, timer and thermometer. 'I'm one of those guys who like to fix things,' Elsener continues. 'If I'm travelling and I see a screw is loose in my hotel wardrobe, I'll get out my pocket knife and fix it. The Swiss are like this in general, we like to fix things. But you can use them for anything. ' Nasa bought Swiss Army knives for their astronauts, and once, a Canadian astronaut, Chris Hadfield, used his to get into a Russian space station when the official tools broke. He said, 'Never leave the planet without one,' which is the best commendation we've ever received.' Hidden in Victorinox's off-limits archive lies a wealth of knives from over the decades. There are Swiss Army knives personalised with ebony and mother-of-pearl handles, bone-handled knives, and even a diamond-studded miniature guitar with a Swiss Army knife built into the neck, which was specially constructed for Elvis Presley. What's remarkable is just how hard-wearing these knives are. Knives from 1937 (when the famous red plastic coating was first added) barely show any signs of age.
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