August 19, 2015
- in Building Collapse Alert, Building Damage Alert, Disaster Declaration Alert, Earth Subsistance Alert, Emergency Alert, Evacuation Alert, Fallen Trees Alert, Flash Flooding Alert, Gale Force Wind Alert, Homeless Alert, Landslide Alert, Major Alert, Mudslide Alert, Power Lines Down Alert, Power Outage Alert, Rain Alert, Rescue Alert, River Alert, Road Closure Alert, Severe Flood Alert, Severe Weather Alert, Sinkhole Alert, State Of Emergency Alert, Structural Damage Alert, Vehicle Alert
- Leave a comment
State of emergency declared after landslides hit Alaska coastal town of Sitka following heavy rain
Four people were missing Tuesday from a neighborhood in the Alaska coastal town of Sitka after heavy rain caused several landslides and flooded homes, emergency responders said.
The landslides were reported in the southeast Alaska town after 2 1/2 inches of rain fell in 24 hours. One sinkhole also was reported.
Gov. Bill Walker planned to tour Sitka on Wednesday to observe the damage.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with those who are missing and all the people affected by the disasters in Sitka today,” Walker said in a written statement provided by his office.
The people who were unaccounted for were believed to be workers at a residential construction site, Sitka fire spokeswoman Sara Peterson said. Because of the instability of the site, a search had not yet started.
One of the newly built homes was destroyed in the landslide and another was damaged, Peterson said. Some other homes in the area were evacuated, but Peterson did not know how many residences or people were affected.
An office building just outside town also was evacuated because it is near one of the landslides.
Some homes in town have been flooded and there were reports of residents not being able to reach their homes or leave their neighborhood, said Jeremy Zidek, a spokesman for the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
Longtime Sitka resident Nolan Simpson said he toured parts of town and saw one home where the driveway was gone, replaced by a stream washing through it. He passed the Indian River and said it was roaring.
The construction site incident was especially heartbreaking, he said.
“It’s pretty devastating on how fast something like this can happen,” Simpson, a retired commercial fishermen, said in a phone interview from a saloon.
The city of more than 9,000 people declared a state of emergency because of the landslides.
Sitka, almost 600 miles southeast of Anchorage, sees heavy rain throughout the year. More rain was expected.
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.
Courtesy of startribune.com
Tags: Bill Walker, heavy rain, Sitka
Earth Extremities Search
Earth Extremities Categories
Join 577 other followers
Blog Stats
- 594,694 hits
Earth Extremities
- @virginmedia The estimated fix time said 3pm, but was fixed earlier 2 days ago
- @virginmedia Hi, Broadband has gone down again. Your service website confirms there is an issue in Croydon, London.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 2 days ago
- @virginmedia Broadband and TV now back 👍🏾 6 days ago
- @virginmedia Hi CS, Thanks for your response. I'll have to reboot now and again to see if VM have fixed the issue! 6 days ago
- @virginmedia Broadband & TV outage in Croydon, Greater London. I checked your service website that confirmed the ou… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 6 days ago
Earth Changing Top Clicks
- None
Earth Changing Cloud Categories
Building Collapse Alert Building Damage Alert Commuter Alert coronavirus Cosmic Rays Alert COVID-19 Disaster Declaration Alert Earth Changing Extremities Earthquake Earthquake Alert Emergency Alert Europe Evacuation Alert Fish Homeless Alert ICELAND REGION Magnetosphere Alert Major Alert nCoV2019 Quake Swarm Quarantined Alert Rain Alert Rescue Alert Ring Of Fire Severe Flood Alert Severe Weather Alert Structural Damage Alert USA Vehicle Alert Yellowstone
Earth Extremities Archives
Posts
- MAGNITUDE 5.9 EAST OF KURIL ISLANDS August 7, 2022
- MAGNITUDE 3.7 ICELAND REGION August 7, 2022
- MAGNITUDE 4.5 PUERTO RICO REGION August 7, 2022
- MAGNITUDE 4.2PUERTO RICO REGION August 7, 2022
- MAGNITUDE 4.5 NEPAL August 7, 2022
Earth Extremities
Top Posts & Pages
- #Hailstones the size of tennis balls hit south-central #France
- UPDATE - UK HEATWAVE LEVEL 3 AMBER ALERT ISSUED ON 13th July 2022
- Mother, baby in pram fall down escalator in China
- Apocalyptic snow storm causes mayhem; State of emergency declared on Tuesday evening for Western and Central parts of New York, USA
- MAGNITUDE 4.7 WESTERN AUSTRALIA
- UPDATE – UK HEATWAVE LEVEL 4 RED ALERT ISSUED ON 15th July 2022
- Train crash leaves several injured in Iran
- Tsunami could be generated by fragmentation of the volcano in the island of Nishinoshima, Japan
- 400 TONS of fish die suddenly in Lake Maninjau, Indonesia
- MAGNITUDE 4.5 SVALBARD REGION #earthquake #Svalbard
Comments