"Devastating" Alaska landslide kills at least 1, prompts evacuations

A landslide in the city of Ketchikan in extreme southeast Alaska has killed at least one person and injured at least three, local officials said.

It also prompted evacuation orders, damaged numerous homes and caused power outages, according to a statement from Borough Mayor Rodney Dial and Ketchikan Mayor Dave Kiffer.

The person killed was identified as Sean Griffin, who worked as a senior maintenance technician for the City of Ketchikan Public Works, the city said in a statement Monday.

"It was his commitment to the community that caused him to respond to the call for assistance during his scheduled time off," the statement said. "Sean and another team member were clearing stormwater drains when they were caught in the landslide on the Third Avenue Bypass."

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued a disaster declaration, along with local officials.

"I have directed state agencies to make available all resources and staff for the response effort," Dunleavy said.

A shelter was set up at Ketchikan High School, officials said.

In a post on X , Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan described the landslide as "devastating."

A Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management response specialist and federal Department of Transportation personnel were expected to travel to Ketchikan on Monday, Dunleavy said.

"In my 65 years in Ketchikan, I have never seen a slide of this magnitude," Kiffer, the mayor, said in the statement, adding that, "With the slides we have seen across the region, there is clearly a region-wide issue that we need to try to understand with the support of our state geologist. The loss of life that we have encountered is heartbreaking, and my heart goes out to those who lost their homes."

All three people who were hurt were brought to a local hospital, the local officials' statement said. One was treated and released and the other two were admitted. Their conditions weren't immediately known.

Everyone in Ketchikan was accounted for, the statement pointed out.

Four homes were critically damaged in the landslide, while businesses and other homes downhill of the slide reported flooding, Ketchikan Gateway Borough said Monday night. About 60 homes in total were ordered evacuated in the immediate aftermath of the landslide, the borough said. That evacuation order remained in effect for many of those homes as of Monday night.

"The Third Ave landslide area was measured to be 1100 feet long, beginning at 650 feet in elevation and ending at 97 feet in elevation. At its widest point, the slide measured 250 feet," the borough said in a statement.

The landslide followed a weekend bout of rain amid an abnormally dry August, said Andrew Park, a meteorologist in Juneau with the National Weather Service. The weather service early Monday said Ketchikan had received about 2.6 inches of rain in about 36 hours, though rainfall totals at higher elevations nearby ranged from 5 to 9 inches.

Landslides can be unpredictable, but this one occurred without certain other risk factors, such as high winds, Park said.

"There weren't any of the big red flags we would normally see," he said.

Leah Canfield was trying to nap when the slide struck. She saw a flash of light —she initially thought lightning, but it was likely an electrical conductor exploding, she said— and then her house started rumbling. She woke her spouse, and they grabbed their dogs and headed outside.

"When we started coming down the stairs, we've seen that, you know, there's a lot of debris that was flying around outside our office window and realized that this is probably much bigger than just an earthquake," she said.

They found that their neighbor's home had plunged downhill, part of it coming to rest in their front yard. Another two-story house next door partially collapsed and slid into a different home, knocking it off its foundation. Trees, debris and a telephone pole landed on the roof of Canfield's home, but Canfield said she believed the house could be salvaged.

After calling family members to let them know they were OK, they walked about 20 minutes to a hotel, because their pickup truck was buried by uprooted trees.

Ketchikan is surrounded by the Tongass National Forest, a temperate rainforest that encompasses much of southeast Alaska. Landslides strike often in the region, but garner little notice when they hit remote, unpopulated areas.

But as climate change intensifies storms and destabilizes soil, they are posing more risk to communities.

Because of the steep terrain, there's limited room for development in the region, and cities and roads are built at the base of slopes. Increasingly, landslides are occurring in inhabited areas amid "old infrastructure that's been built in harm's way," said Aaron Jacobs, a meteorologist and senior service hydrologist with the National Weather Service's Juneau office.

"It's just becoming more and more common that they're impacting people," Jacobs said.

Jacobs planned to travel to Ketchikan on Monday to study the soil composition in the area and try to pinpoint why it occurred when the area had been in a period of drought before the weekend's rainfall.

"We're going to learn more about this and hopefully we can figure out what caused it and then we can move forward on it," he said.

Power was restored to a portion of the area by 8:15 p.m. Sunday. More areas were expected to have power restored by Monday night. Other areas, however, will remain without power for several days while the landslide is cleared and broken power poles are replaced.

Landslides include debris flows often triggered by heavy rains. When logging or fire destroys trees, the loss of root structure can weaken soil. Rain that isn't being sucked up by plants can saturate the ground, making it more likely to slide. Other types include creeps, which move slowly downward, and rock falls.

In Alaska, melting permafrost, retreating glaciers, earthquakes and pounding rains can all trigger landslides.