Four people are known to have died following landslides in the southern Alps this weekend. On Saturday 15 November 2014 a landslide destroyed a home in Cerro di Laveno in Italy, killing a 70-year-old man and his 16-year-old granddaughter, while on Sunday 16 November a mudlside hit a home at Davesco-Soragno near the Swiss town of Lugano, killing two women and badly injuring a 44-year-old man described as an Italian national. Further north in Switzerland rescue workers are searching for survivors after another mudslide destroyed an apartment block in the Canton of Ticino.
Rescue workers at the site of a home destroyed by a landslide at Davesco-Soragno near Lugano on Sunday 16 November 2014. Gabriele Putzu.
The incidents occurred after several weeks of exceptionally high rainfall, with more rain falling in the last few days than the region usually receives in a year. Landslides are a common problem after severe weather events, as excess
pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments,
allowing them to flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all landslides
are caused by heavy rainfall. The rainfall has also lead to widespread flooding in the area, with several rivers bursting their banks and water levels in lakes at dangerously high levels.
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See also...
Four people are known to have died and about twenty more have been injured after a thunderstorm caused a flash flood near Refrontolo in the Veneto Region of northern Italy slightly before midnight on Saturday 2...
A branch of the supermarket Lidl was destroyed by a shallow landslide in the southern Italian town of Montescaglioso on Tuesday 3 December 2013, which also destroyed roads and severed power lines and...
Eighteen people including four children are known to have died, and several more are missing on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia after Cyclone Cleopatra hit the island on the morning of 19...
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