Natural disasters in Austria

The natural disaster that affects Austria the most is avalanches. They have a major affect on the people and the buildings that are on mountainsides.

There have been a few avalanches in the past, one of then being the Blons avalanche. The Blons avalanche in Austria was one of the worst mass burials by avalanche in recorded history. The small village of Blons near Bludenz, Vorarlberg in the Austrian Alps was hit by an avalanche at 9:36 a.m. on 12 January 1954. A second avalanche hit the village at 7 p.m. as rescue workers attempted to dig out the 118 persons buried by the first avalanche. The village had a population of 365 people, of whom 57 were killed and 22 injured. Two bodies were never found. 29 of the 90 buildings in the village were destroyed. Another major avalanches was the Galtur Avalanche. On February 23, 1999 the worst Alpine avalanche in 40 years killed 31 people in the small Alpine village of Galtur, Austria. Three major weather systems originating from the Atlantic accounted for large snow falls totaling around four meters in the area. 'Freeze-thaw' conditions created a weak layer on top of an existing snow pack, further snow was then deposited on top. This, coupled with high wind speeds creating large snow drifts , caused unusually high volumes of snow to be deposited.

If you are in this area and you are in need of emergency services you can call 112 or 122