1962: Thousands killed in Peru landslide
At least 2,000 people are believed to have been killed after a massive avalanche of rocks and ice buried an entire mountain village and several settlements in north-west Peru.
Last night millions of tons of snow, rocks, mud and debris tumbled down the extinct volcano of Huascaran, Peru's highest mountain in the Andes range.
The village of Ranrahirca and its inhabitants was totally destroyed along with eight other towns. The mayor Alfonso Caballero said only about 50 of its 500 inhabitants survived. "In eight minutes Ranrahirca was wiped off the map," he said.
Relief efforts are being hampered by the very storms that started the devastating landslide, but there are believed to be few survivors.
1950-1951 Winter of Terror
The Winter of Terror was the three-month period during the winter of 1950-1951 when a previously unrecorded number of avalanches took place in the Alps. The series of 649 avalanches killed over 265 people and caused large amounts of damage to residential and other human-made structures.
Austria suffered most damage and loss of human life with 135 killed and many villages destroyed.Thousands of acres of economically valuable forest were also damaged during the period.
The Valais canton of Switzerland suffered 92 human deaths, approximately 500 cattle deaths and 900 human-made structures destroyed. As in Austria, economically important forests were also damaged during the period.
The Swiss town of Andermatt located in the Adula Alps was hit by 6 avalanches within a 60 minute period resulting in 13 human deaths
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