Flooding of Rhone River causes severe road and rail traffic disruptions
Following heavy rainfall on Saturday and during the night, the Rhone River and its tributaries have flooded.
Keystone / Jean-Christophe Bott
Due to flooding in canton Valais, southern Switzerland, the A9 motorway between Sierre and Sion is closed. The entire canton is on alert, cantonal authorities said on Sunday.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Русский
ru
Непогода ударила по швейцарским кантонам Тичино и Вале
Flooding and debris flows occurred along the Rhone River and its tributaries following heavy thunderstorms on Saturday and during the night. Added to this was the melting snow and the fact that the ground was already saturated with water.
Do you want to read our weekly top stories? Subscribe here.
The A9 motorway was closed between Sierre and Sion on Sunday morning. Numerous other roads in the canton were also impassable, including the Simplon axis. Traffic was also severely disrupted on the Simplon railway line. The situation on the roads and railways could change quickly, wrote the cantonal command centre. It recommended checking online before travelling.
More
More
How Switzerland is trying to defeat extreme weather events
This content was published on
Nature is proving a more powerful and unpredictable force than concrete flood protection measures.
Hundreds of relief workers were deployed in Valais, namely 20 command units, around 320 firefighters from over 30 corps, 100 members of the civil defence, over 100 employees of the departments responsible for transport infrastructure as well as employees of municipal services and private companies.
External Content
Translated from German by DeepL/gw
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here. If you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here. To offer feedback on this news story, please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Popular Stories
More
Foreign affairs
Go to war or stay put? Ukrainian men in Switzerland face fresh dilemmas
Is reforming the Swiss pension system still possible, and if so, how?
Solutions still need to be found to meet the challenge of an ageing population and to improve the pensions of low-paid workers, the majority of whom are women.
New European space tech centre in Switzerland launches its first project
This content was published on
The European Space Deep-Tech Innovation Centre (ESDI), launched in collaboration with the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), is to be located in the immediate vicinity of the PSI in northern Switzerland.
Swiss Federal Railways launches campaign for safety on public transport
This content was published on
The Swiss Federal Railways is launching a campaign for greater respect and safety on public transport, with posters to go up in stations and on trains starting next week.
Swiss scientists to use AI for improved weather and climate forecasts
This content was published on
MeteoSwiss and the Swiss Data Science Center have signed a four-year agreement to make greater use of AI in meteorology and climatology going forward.
This content was published on
Prices of owner-occupied homes rose in the third quarter of 2024 by 0.5%, with inflation affecting both apartments and single-family houses, says the Federal Statistical Office.
This content was published on
The honey harvest is projected to be lower than usual this year, as Swiss beekeepers report harvesting an average of just 16kg of honey per bee colony.
More young refugees in Switzerland following vocational training
This content was published on
More than half of young refugees and temporarily admitted persons between the ages of 16 and 25 are now in training. This is significantly more than five years ago.
One in five Swiss children suffers psychological abuse at home
This content was published on
In Switzerland, one in five children suffers psychological violence, and one in three has witnessed psychological violence between parents, says the association Kinderschutz Schweiz.
Swiss government minister breaks silence over Trump remarks controversy
This content was published on
Transport Minister Albert Rösti explained himself in a television interview on Sunday evening, after being called out for expressing support for Donald Trump.
Swiss Covid expert calls for caution on vaccination recommendations
This content was published on
The head of the vaccination commission would be “even more cautious today” when it comes to Covid-19 vaccination recommendations.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.