Alpine Avalanche in Austria in 1999

The fall in Austria that had killed to a greater extent or less 31 mass in February 1999 has been considered as the worst innate(p) misfortune during the past 30 years. The alpine come down smashed into the Ischgl ski resort near the village of Galtuer. What is go down? Why it is happening?These twain questions provide understanding on the natural disaster that most of us are non aware or are concerned. Snow go down is the speedy downslide movement of snow fruitcake associated with assorted debris such as rocks and vegetation (Definition and Characteristic-Avalanche).Avalanche happens when a bunch of snow becomes unstable it then releases and speedily down slides all over an open or concerted area in an descend path. Its speed still reaches up to ii atomic number 6 miles an hour and mass wield a force strong enough to uproot or snap full-grown trees or even destroy concrete structures. An descend may be preceded by an air blast that may in addition be capable of d amaging buildings. Snow come down is a natural misfortune on with rock roll down, landslides, debris torrents that are all cognize as mountain slope hazards (McClung, David & Schaerer, Peter 2006, p.14). These hazards presents serious problems for visitors and dwellers in cragged terrain though mountain slope hazards are not as damaging as the so-called big five of the natural disasters such as earthquake, floods, tropical storms, drought, and vol flowerpotic eruptions. However, the Austrian descend in February 23, 1999 that claimed thirty- bingle lives for the most part tourist from neighboring countries were said to be the worst alpine disaster in the world. Rescuers said aside from the 31 people dead, they rescued cardinal of which eight were injured.Wendelin Weingartner, governor in the western province of Tyrol commented saying, this is a tragedy such as we energise not had for centuries. Eyewitness of the scene say automobiles were trampled by big walls of snow o r tossed like toy cars by the force of the avalanche. One ho purpose was sliced off its top bedeck as if by a giant razor blade. The disaster set-apart up to seven coke tourists in Galtuer but they were eventually flown place by the Austrian army to galosh as well as the more or less 1000 foreign tourists.The impact of this avalanche was heavily felt in the village of Galtuer, which was reach, by the raging unfluctuating moving snow avalanche in a matter of altogether fifty seconds destroying seven modern buildings and burying fifty-seven people. The families of the victims were outraged as the village were supposed to be safe from the nemesis of avalanche. Galtuer was situated two hundred meters from the base of the mountains and is considered safe from avalanche based on the computerized aroused test showing one in one hundred-fifty year event, would not reach the village.However, the massive built up of snow and the accumulation along the way as it slid down the mountain slope has grown so large at one hundred meters high when it trampled on the village. investigating about what make the February 1999 Austrian avalanche so ofttimes worse than anything antecedently demoed revealed that from January 20 onwards series of ascetic storms brought warm, moist air from the Atlantic, which upon meeting with ice cold arctic air, resulted, to a record snowfalls of up to four meters.This was followed by very strong winds of up to one hundred-twenty kilometer per hour, which had increased the depth of snow on the mountains above Galtuer. David Waugh (2000) explains that as snowfalls, it often forms two tiers separated, as in sandwich, by a weaker layer (p. 127). The warmer weather at Galtuer at the end of January caused melting and re-freezing until in that respect was a much greater accumulation of snow. Although avalanche higher standard was given three times in the area, but it was quite impossible to predict the exact locations of avalanche with al l the thousands slopes in the region.The build up of snow under a weak ground have made that very strong avalanche force that has brought ample destruction on lives and properties. The February 1999 avalanche, which began at four in the afternoon of the twenty-third with a dry out snow slab avalanche, fractured with a width of approximately four hundred meter. Scientist study the nature of February 1999 avalanche discovered through a controlled experiment that avalanche increased in volume considerably as it moved declivitous (Waugh 2000, p.127). The scientist findings revealed that that the weight of snow that hit Galtuer was up to 400,000 tones and that the avalanche was one hundred meters in height and had traveled at the speed of three hundred kilometer per hour. The disastrous 1999 alpine avalanche has shown profitly that it is fundamental to have proper land use planning to foster mountain villages from the vitriolic effects of the snow avalanches. Walter J.Ammann, Stef anie Dannenmann, and Laurent Vulliet stated that proper planning of land use requires a correct riskiness analysis procedure which implies the evaluation of the two essential components of risk hazard and vulnerability (Ammann, Dannenmann, & Vulliet 2006, p. 227). The vulnerability of Austrian structures and buildings against avalanche has been directly correlated to the impact pressure. However, the vulnerability component of avalanche risk is more difficult to assess because of the scarcity of suitable data to appreciate the effects of avalanches on people and properties.Despite of the efforts of the Austrian government to preclude the build up of snow in the mountain area, the incident that challenged the valet de chambre capacity of creating galosh standards against natural disasters prove to be no much against a simple actions of nature. The February 1999 avalanche in the village of Galtuer perhaps can be attributed to the human shortcomings despite of the prior efforts m ade to ensure the safety of everyone in the area, tourist and local people alike.Based on forthcoming literature, comprehensive studies were done on the characteristic and nature of avalanche altogether after the Galtuer incident happened. This suggest that the village of Galtuer which were assured of safety from the threat of avalanche were constantly in danger as studies done previously were not really sufficient to determine the true characteristic of avalanche. Besides, hazard zoning was inefficient as most of the destroyed houses were within gullible zoning which dangerous to the threats of avalanche. In this case, the February 1999 avalanche came as a big surprise costing lives and damages to properties.It was apparent that weather was particularly severe in the region with non-stop snowfalls over the duration of seven days accumulating up to 270cm. Local feedbacks about the weather physical body estimates that strong winds, which are most eighty to ninety kilometer per h our, produced 10-20 tones of snow in an hour. The testimonies from survivors indicate that they were not at all expecting such tragedy would happen. A British survivor described the scenario as incredible and absolutely terrifying stating that a bulky cloud of snow enclosed the village.In his article entitled, Lessons Learnt from Avalanche Disasters Alessandro capital of Sri Lanka stated that people ignored the warning believing that the situations were improbable. The 1999 Austrian avalanche was not a single disaster that happened that particular year as more avalanche occurred although not as disastrous as what happened in February 23 of that year. The two avalanches that successively and unpredictedly occurred have left umteen people dead and threats of new avalanches continues to bring fears and worries to people leaving in the area and tourist alike.The responsibility of the Austrian authorities is to make protect the safety of the people by enforcing necessary measures that will guarantee their safety. It is clear from this point that the authorities had not done enough to protect the people from the threat of the avalanche. Indeed, the Austrian authorities have been criticized for doing the evacuation earlier. Televisions and newspaper stated that that government should have regainingn more safety measures for the sake of the safety of the people, even at the cost of tourist business.Conclusions What happened in February 1999 in Austria is stern reminder that man cannot underestimate the forces of nature, which usually strike in an unexpected situation. The case of the sinking of Titanic during a very peaceful condition of sea is a further reminder that authorities cannot afford to be complacent about his accomplishment particularly when it comes to keeping the safety of the people. time the Austrian authorities admit shortcomings, the disaster had already claimed lives and wrought enormous destruction to properties.Although these events happened almost a decade ago, it is important that government take advance precautionary measures that will guaranty the safety of the people even at the expense of tourist industry. While Austrian mountain slopes continues to earn tourist from the around the world, the danger from the threats of avalanche remains. However, it is perhaps safe to attach that the lessons from the 1999 avalanche were already imbedded in the hearts and of the Austrian people. In other(a) words, similar disasters may never happen again with the same magnitude of destruction both in humans and in properties.Reference inclination of an orbit Ammann, J. ,W. Dannenmann, S. & Vulliet, L. (2006) Risk 21- Coping with Risk Due to Natural Hazards in the twenty-first London Taylor and Francis Group Definition and Characteristic-Avalanche http//geosurvey. state. co. us/Default. aspx? tabid=399 Hopes fade to Find more Survivors from Austrian Avalanche (posted February 25, 1999) http//www. cnn. com/WORLD/europe/9902/25/e urope. snow. 01/index. html McClung, D. & Scaerer, (2006) P. The Avalanche Handbook. USA The Mountaineers Books Waugh, D. (2000) Geography An Integrated Approach UK Nelson Thornes