ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Authorities haven’t begun clearing tons of logs and mud to search for three men believed buried by a landslide because the debris that crashed into a southeast Alaska town remained too unstable Wednesday and poses a danger.
Crews in Sitka unsuccessfully tried to stabilize the ground after part of a mountain gave way and swept tree-tangled muck into a construction site Tuesday. Workers tried using heavy equipment to divert stream water washing over the debris, which geologists were reviewing to see how responders can safely begin searching for the missing men, officials said.
“We don’t want to put additional people in harm’s way and compound the problem,” said Jeremy Zidek, a spokesman for the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
Cloud cover over the mountain also slowed the effort by preventing an aerial view of the slide, which authorities believe killed city building inspector William Stortz, 62, and brothers Elmer and Ulises Diaz, 26 and 25 respectively.
Zidek said later Wednesday that crews were continuing to try to drain water from the site and were searching around the perimeters. But the bulk of the debris pile remained too unstable to tackle, he said. The mud that is covering the site has the consistency of pudding, he said.
City spokesman Ken Fate said there is no time-frame for fully clearing the site, which he called a huge undertaking. Also, the water coursing through the debris pile is flowing through the neighborhood and overwhelming the city sewer system, he said.
Gov. Bill Walker toured the area Wednesday to see the damage from six landslides that crashed into different parts of the city Tuesday after 2 1/2 inches of rain fell in 24 hours. The picturesque fishing community, tucked between snowcapped mountains and the Pacific Ocean, is nestled in rain forest terrain on the west coast of Baranof Island that is characterized by heavy rains year-round.
A newly built home at the construction site was destroyed, and another was damaged, Sitka fire spokeswoman Sara Peterson said. Some other nearby homes were evacuated, but she did not know how many residences or people were affected.
Homes in town have been flooded, and there were reports of people not being able to reach their houses or leave their neighborhood, Zidek said.
Local resident Ramon Hernandez said the Diaz brothers are partners with him in Four Points Painting, a painting and drywall contractor in Sitka. The brothers are longtime residents who love playing basketball and are very close to each other, Hernandez said. The brothers’ parents also live in Sitka.
Hernandez said he is holding out hope that he will get a phone call that the brothers are alive.
“There’s been plenty of phone calls with bad news,” he said. “I think it’s fair for me to have a phone call with good news now.”
Residents of about 20 homes near the construction site and at a downslope neighborhood were evacuated. Residents in the lower neighborhood were allowed to retrieve belongings for 30 minutes on Wednesday, according to Fate.
Chris Harshey, who is a carpenter, was working on a nearby home Tuesday when he heard the trees and earth fall from the mountain.
“All of a sudden, I heard crackling and crumbling, and then the lights flickered,” he told the Daily Sitka Sentinel.
Harshey went outside to investigate and saw “a sea of large logs, mud, more logs and a slurry of muddy debris.” The slide destroyed a home about 200 yards above him and damaged another home closer to him.
The entire landslide lasted about four minutes, he said.
The city of more than 9,000 people declared a state of emergency. Sitka, almost 600 miles southeast of Anchorage, is a popular cruise ship destination that features such landmarks as Mount Edgecumbe, an extinct volcano that rises 3,200 feet and somewhat resembles Japan’s Mount Fuji.
Heavy rain was blamed for a major landslide in September near the town that wiped out hundreds of thousands of dollars in watershed-restoration projects. The rain also damaged a footbridge and trails, including one that had been repaired after flooding in January 2014.
A year earlier, two people at a U.S. Forest Service cabin near Sitka escaped moments before part of a mountain slid down.
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