At least three people have been killed and three others are reported missing in a landslide Tuesday on a major highway serving an island community in Southeast Alaska. State officials gave information about this incident. During this time one person also got injured. Two more bodies were found in the area later Tuesday, McDaniel said in a statement.
Landslide In Alaska: At least three people have been killed and three others are reported missing in a landslide Tuesday on a major highway serving an island community in Southeast Alaska. State officials gave information about this incident.
About 2,000 people who were fishing in the region, which is located about 155 miles (250 km) south of Juneau, the state capital, were trapped after a steep, densely forested mountain slope collapsed Monday night along a coastal portion of the Jimovia Highway near Wrangell, Alaska, officials said. It’s a logging town, too.
During this time one person also got injured.
According to Shannon McCarthy, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, the mountain crumbled during a storm that brought strong winds and a lot of rain to Southeast Alaska in recent days, soaking the soils there and raising the possibility of landslides.
Three homes were washed away and a 500-foot (152-meter) broad stretch of road was covered by flows of mud and tree debris, according to officials briefing reporters via video conference call on Tuesday.
In the initial search for survivors on Monday night, emergency personnel discovered the body of a teenage girl; on Tuesday morning, an adult lady was recovered from the wreckage. According to Austin McDaniel, a representative for the state Department of Public Safety, he was later classified as being in good condition.
Later on Tuesday, two more bodies were discovered nearby, according to a statement from McDaniel.
Following the conclusion of the search on Tuesday, he said, three more individuals—two minors and an adult—were still listed as missing.
Ground-level rescue operations were halted overnight while geologists assessed the risk of additional landslide activity in the area, but on Tuesday parts of the slide zone were deemed stable enough to resume searches.
Drones and aircraft were also used in the search. Acting City Manager Mason Villarma stated that between 20 and 30 residents were evacuated from the area surrounding the slide.
Situated on the northern extremity of Wrangell Island in the Alaska Panhandle, Wrangell was settled by the Russians in the 19th century, after the local Tlingit people and their descendants had lived there for millennia.
Elias National Park is located more inland and to the northwest, and it has nothing to do with Wrangel Mountain or Wrangell-St.
Wrangell has air and boat connections to other Southeast Alaskan cities. The Zimoviya Highway, which stretches 14 miles along the island’s western shore, is its main thoroughfare. The landslip, according to officials, happened at mile marker 11, blocking five miles of the route.
McCarthy said several more landslides occurred on Prince of Wales Island, south of Wrangell, but no injuries were reported there.
