Three people are dead and three others, including two under 18 years old, are believed missing after a landslide swept down a slope Monday night in Alaska, officials said.
A woman was rescued Tuesday from the landslide, which struck just before 9 p.m. Monday near Wrangell in southeast Alaska, state Department of Public Safety spokesman Austin McDaniel said. The woman is in good condition.
A girl was found dead in the landslide area Monday in the initial search, McDaniel said. Her age wasn’t released.
On Tuesday, a drone operator spotted the bodies of two adults, which have been retrieved, the Public Safety Department said.
Two juveniles and an adult are still believed missing, it said.
“Right now, the major focus is on search and rescue,” Mark Roberts, the state homeland security division incident commander, said at a news briefing earlier Tuesday.
Three homes were hit by the landslide, McDaniel said. It happened by and across the Zimovia Highway, which runs along the western coast on Wrangell Island.
Local search-and-rescue teams are assisting agencies in the search. There had been concerns over stability, but the north slope has become more stable since the landslide, officials said.
Such landslides are known as “debris flows,” and they are a risk in southeastern Alaska, where there are steep slopes, state Department of Natural Resources geologist Barrett Salisbury said. Heavy rain and snowmelts increase the risk.
“The debris flow occurs when the soil becomes so saturated it no longer has the strength to hold itself in place,” Salisbury said. The flows send a mixture of soil, water, rock and things like trees downslope, and they can travel up to around 35 mph.
There had been a storm with heavy precipitation and high winds before the slide, state Transportation Department spokesperson Shannon McCarthy said.
Signs that a landslide could occur include new springs or water flowing where it didn’t before, bulging in pavement, shifts in structures like porches, titling trees and a rumbling sound, Salisbury said.
“Folks nearby need to be on high alert,” he said, because a landslide means the conditions exist.
Twenty to 30 people have been displaced, officials said. The slide is estimated to have been 500 feet across where it crossed the highway.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued a disaster declaration for Wrangell, which is on the southern part of the Alaska Panhandle.
“Rose and I are heartbroken by this disaster, and we pray for the safety of all those on site and offer all the resources our state has available,” he said in a statement.
Authorities ask anyone with someone unaccounted-for to report that person to Wrangell police.
