Six people are missing in southeast Alaska after record-breaking rainfall caused a 600-foot landslide and destroyed four homes, authorities said.
“At this time, there are six people unaccounted for and four houses have been destroyed,” Alaska state troopers said in a statement. “There is approximately nine feet of mud and trees covering the area.”
Search-and-rescue operations in Haines were suspended late Wednesday due to “rumbling unstable ground” in the area, the agency said.
A “major landslide” rocked Haines’ Beach Road neighborhood Wednesday afternoon, prompting evacuations of homes and impacting the city’s cruise ship dock, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
The massive landslide was about 600 feet long, or roughly the length of two football fields, Haines Mayor Douglas Olerud told the newspaper.
Search-and-rescue efforts are expected to resume early Thursday, complete with an Army National Guard helicopter from Juneau, the newspaper reported.
Six people are missing after heavy rains caused a mudslide in Haines, Alaska, yesterday. Matt Goron/Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities via APThe US Coast Guard also flew a helicopter to Haines on Wednesday after the city ordered an evacuation amid a flooding emergency declared earlier in the day.
“Haines is going to be needing lots of prayers,” Olerud said in a statement. “We have several roads that have washed out, mudslides and houses flooding. Crews have been working all night but the amount of rain we are getting is making it difficult for them to address all the problems.”
Olerud said 30 people had been evacuated and were put up in local hotels. It will take weeks or months to fully repair the damage left behind, he said.
Matt Goron/Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities via APThe storm has already caused a “few million dollars” worth of damage, Olerud told USA Today Wednesday.
“It’s been a long day,” he said. “This is the largest national disaster that I’ve seen in town.”
The mudslide came one day after 4.93 inches of rain fell in Juneau — about 90 miles south of Haines — breaking a single-day record from 1946. The National Weather Service also measured 6.54 inches at Juneau’s airport in 48 hours, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
Matt Goron/Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities via APOne Haines resident characterized the storm as the “worst” he’s ever seen in his nearly four decades in the region, but said the neighbors were helping each other recover.
“That’s the one thing special about this small town,” Luke Williams told the Associated Press.
“Everyone comes together no matter how mad one person is at another. In the end, if there is an emergency, we all come together to help each other.”
More rain is expected in the area Thursday and ground conditions may continue to be unstable, Haines officials said.
“The potential for additional debris flows and landslides over the next 24 hours is high,” a Wednesday afternoon statement read. “If you live below steep terrain, please assess your situation and be prepared to evacuate if the situation changes.”
